


Today’s Question: Although I have always removed older versions of Photoshop, I am still left with files in the “Settings” folder [stored in a folder structure in the AppData folder on Windows or the Application Support folder on Macintosh]. For multiple previous versions some of these (e.g. Brushes.psp) can be quite large. Am I doing something wrong in my installs of Photoshop that these relics of previous version clutter up my hard drive?
Tim’s Quick Answer: To remove the additional storage space from presets and other preferences for earlier versions of Photoshop, be sure to choose the “Remove” option in the “Photoshop preferences” dialog that appears when you uninstall the earlier version.
More Detail: When you uninstall a version of Photoshop, you’ll be prompted about whether you want to remove the user data that is collectively referred to as preferences. This would include things like interface settings, plugins, and other installed items and preferences.
The first thing I recommend is to confirm that you have everything you need in the latest version of Photoshop, such as to make sure that plug-ins are functioning correctly and that you have any custom items such as brushes you may have purchased or created available in the current version.
Then, when you initiate the uninstall of the earlier version of Photoshop (which I recommend doing from the Creative Cloud application) you’ll be prompted whether you want to keep or remove the preferences files. If you click the Keep button, those preferences will remain even though they won’t actually be available unless you apply them to the current version of Photoshop or reinstall the earlier version.
If you click the Remove button, those preferences files will be removed, freeing up hard drive space that would otherwise still be consumed. This can add up to a fair amount of space depending on how much customization you’ve done and how many older versions of Photoshop are still installed.
Even if you click the Remove button, there will be folders that remain for the earlier version of Photoshop. However, those folders should not actually consume any hard drive space, and you can remove them through the operating system if you’d like. And if you had previously chosen the Keep option when uninstalling a version of Photoshop, you can remove the folder through the operating system as long as you’re sure that all plugins and preferences you need are already available in the current version of Photoshop.