Is Premiere Pro giving you headaches? Maybe you’re seeing glitches and unexpected behavior from options that you know worked perfectly. When that’s the case, it helps to know how to reset Adobe Premiere Pro preferences.
In this tutorial, we’ll tackle how to reset preferences in Premiere Pro. You can use this as an easy troubleshooting step when Premiere Pro isn’t behaving as expected.
What Does it Mean to Reset Preferences in Premiere Pro?
Before we learn how to reset preferences in Premiere Pro, it helps to know why you should. What do Adobe Premiere Pro preferences and settings control? When you should they be reset?
Here are common problems you might experience with Premiere Pro. Each of these can serve as indicator that it’s time for a reset:
- Slow performance
- Non-working plugins and panels
- Unexpected crashes and unpredictable performance
- You’ve made changes to the app’s interface that you can’t seem to undo
After you reset preferences, what can you expect to change? Hopefully, it fixes the unexpected glitches you’re experiencing. But there are features controlled by preferences that are sure to reset.
Per Adobe’s official documentation, here are several items controlled by your preferences. That means that they’ll reset to default after you follow these steps.
- Length of your default transitions
- Brightness of the user interface
- Label colors
- Audio hardware settings
- Workspace changes (such as resizing and moving panels), etc.
How to Reset Preferences in Premiere Pro
Now, it’s time to learn the quick trick to reset Adobe Premiere Pro preferences. It’s a simple keyboard shortcut that starts the action.
Let’s prepare to open Premiere Pro. Before you launch the app, hold Option on macOS or Alt on your Windows computer. Then, click (or double click) to open the app.
If you did this step properly, you’ll see a pop-up window prompting you to reset Adobe Premiere Pro preferences and settings. You’ll also notice that you have a variety of options you can reset in the process. I typically start with the Reset app preferences option if I’m experiencing issues. Then, if the issue isn’t resolved, I’ll test the other options.
As you may know, Adobe Premiere Pro supports third-party plugins. However, these sometimes make your app unstable, particularly after app or plugin updates. If you’re experiencing issues, try out the Disable third-party plugins option.
Once you’ve selected your desired options, click on Continue. Premiere Pro launches with default preferences restored.
Reset Premiere Pro Preferences Inside the App
Here’s one other option to reset preferences in Premiere Pro. With the app already open, browse to the settings. Find the Reset option, and click on it. Choose to Reset your selected options, then press OK.
Make sure to tick Reset app preferences as this controls the majority of Premiere Pro preferences. The next time Premiere opens, it will rebuild Preferences from scratch.
That’s it! Whether you use the keyboard shortcut or the menu option, you’ve learned how to reset preferences in Premiere Pro.
Pro Tip: How to Backup Your Premiere Pro Preferences
You learned how to reset preferences in Premiere Pro. That means that you’ll start from scratch as you work in the app.
It’s a great technique when you’re experiencing issues, but it comes at a cost. You’ll need to re-adjust your settings and options to reinstate your preferred way of working.
Premiere Pro preferences are stored in a folder. You can make a copy elsewhere for safe keeping. You can backup your Premiere Pro preferences and settings. That means that you can save them after you have everything to your liking, and restore them later.
According to Adobe, here are the file paths where Premiere Pro preferences and settings live. In my case, I found them in this folder on macOS, labeled Profile-(my name):
- Windows: C:Users<username>DocumentsAdobePremiere Pro<version>Profile-<profilename>
- macOS: /Users/<username>/Documents/Adobe/Premiere Pro/<version>
You can also use this same approach to delete your preferences, too. Delete the profile and Premiere Pro will automatically rebuild preferences the next time you open the app.
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Now You Know How to Reset Preferences in Premiere Pro
You just learned how to reset preferences in Premiere Pro. With these simple steps, you can reset your workspace. If your Premiere Pro needs a fresh start, it’s time to try out what you just learned. Reset Adobe Premiere Pro preferences as an easy first troubleshooting step.
Don’t forget the tip you saw to back up your preferences, too. If your setup currently works fine, browse to the folder where your preferences live and back them up. Then, you can restore them later as needed.