PDF export presets are now missing

[scottschwarz]

My presets that I have been using for over 10 years have now gone missing in all of my adobe software.

Where can I look for them to reload them?

Can I restore them from a Time Machine backup?

Searches on my hardrive have failed to come up with anything.

I looked for anything with .joboptions extension.

[Steve Werner]

To clarify:

What version of InDesign are you running? What operating system?

Are you saying there none of the default PDF presets are missing? Or are you saying that custom PDF presets you've created are missing? Or both?

And these are also missing in Illustrator CC (assuming you have a CC version) also?

[scottschwarz]

Sierra 10.12.6

Indesign CC 2019

The default export presets are there. The custom ones I have created are not available in any of the adobe programs.

[Steve Werner · Accepted solution]

Custom PDF presets have been stored in the same location for a long time. I wrote about this in InDesignSecrets.com in 2007!

https://indesignsecrets.com/customizing-pdf-presets.php

Here's the path where the files should be stored:

Macintosh: Users > [yourname] > Library > Application Support > Adobe > Adobe PDF > Settings

NOTE: THIS IS THE SOMETIMES HIDDEN USER LIBRARY FOLDER. Here are directions for finding it in Sierra:

How To: Show the User Library Folder in macOS Sierra - Mactrasthttps://www.mactrast.com/2016/12/show...

I just checked my custom PDF presets and that's where they still are. I'm running InDesign CC 2019 in Mojave (10.14.5) so it should be the same in Sierra.

I'd look on your Time Machine backup in that location.

[scottschwarz]

Interesting. I just created a new PDF preset. It is available in both Indesign and Illustrator, but there is no file with that name in that directory on my mac.

[Steve Werner · Accepted solution]

Check again: Here's the path for where they're stored on my system:

Here are the same two custom PDF presets in InDesign:

[scottschwarz]

I found my backup of them and now I have them. My Time Machine backup showed that that directory was empty this morning. What could have caused that?

[Steve Werner]

Great question. I use a different backup system (Dropbox which can save incremental changes, and a once-a-week Carbon Copy Cloner backup. I don't use Time Machine for backup.

You might ask in the Apple forums.

[Steve Werner]

Glad you figured it out.

If you think I provided the right answer to your original question, please mark it as Correct so others can benefit when they are searching.

[scottschwarz]

Thanks for your help

[scottschwarz]

Is there another location it is saving these to? And are they hidden files?

[Steve Werner]

As I said before the User Library is hidden by default. Look at the reference I gave for how to find it in your OS.