Backing up your Lightroom Presets is essential to keeping them safe.

You paid good money for them, so take the extra step to keep them safe in case something happens (like your computer crashes or your data goes missing).

Trust me, I have seen it LOADS of times.

Computers crash every single day for one reason or another. People change or upgrade their computers every single day too – which is another reason to keep your presets backed up in a safe place. When the time comes to use them again, you’ll be glad that you took the extra 2 minutes to do this!

My favorite way of backing up Lightroom Presets

Because computers can crash at a moment’s notice, I like to backup all of my media (including my lightroom presets) to a portable hard drive AND the cloud.

I’ve used a lot of portable hard drives over the years, but I must say that I have had the most success with this one. It has lasted many years and many files. Trust me when I say this: you’ll be glad that you backed up ALL of your media when your computer crashes (heaven forbid).

In addition to a portable hard drive, I also back up my Lightroom Presets onto a cloud storage. My favorite being Dropbox.

Dropbox is great for backing up AND delivering/sharing digital photos with my photography clients, so it’s really useful in so many ways. Plus, I can feel safe knowing that everything I own is backed up on the cloud in case of a fire or disaster and everything at my home gets toasted.

When to backup Lightroom Presets

Right now. Seriously, just do it TODAY.

You should also make sure that they are backed up BEFORE you run a Lightroom update, because you just never know what might happen.

How to back up your Develop Presets and Brush Presets for Lightroom

Here are the simple steps you need to follow to back up your presets today (as in right now).

1. Open Lightroom.
2. Open the Preferences Folder.  On a PC, choose Edit, then Preferences.  On a Mac, choose Lightroom, then Preferences.
3. In the Preferences menu, highlight the Presets tab (the second from the left).
4. Click on “Show all Other Lightroom Presets.”
5. Your Finder (on Mac) or Windows Explorer (on PC) will open, and a folder called “Lightroom” will be highlighted.  This is the folder you need to back up.
6. Copy the “Lightroom” Folder and Paste it where you want your backup to be.

How to back up Lightroom presets (xmp files)

1. Open Lightroom.
2. Open the Preferences Folder.  On a PC, choose Edit, then Preferences.  On a Mac, choose Lightroom, then Preferences.
3. In the Preferences menu, highlight the Presets tab (the second from the left.)
4. Click on “Show Lightroom Develop Presets.”
5. Your Finder (on Mac) or Windows Explorer (on PC) will open, and a folder called “Settings” will be highlighted.  This is the folder you need to back up.  SPECIAL NOTE: This process will not back up your Adjustment Brush Presets.  Follow the steps above to ensure those presets are backed up!
6. Copy the “Settings” Folder and paste it where you want your backup to be.

Now you’re done!

Just remember to do this every time you purchase a new set of Lightroom presets.

Which collection will you make yours this time?