I constantly stay up to date with each new release of Blender, but this means my preferences are wiped clean each time. How do I export/import these preferences to avoid loosing my carefully crafted set up each time?
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asked May 23, 2013 at 1:55
A Wild RolandiXor Has AppearedA Wild RolandiXor Has Appeared
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3$\begingroup$ Doesn't Blender prompt you when it first loads up if you want the preferences from the last version? $\endgroup$– CharlesLMay 23, 2013 at 13:12
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2$\begingroup$ The free Blender Sync feature lets you save your preferences in the cloud and sync them between devices or different versions. $\endgroup$– MicroMachineMay 31, 2019 at 6:23
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$\begingroup$ @MicroMachine Blender Sync is nice, but it doesn't sync the addons. I understand why it doesn't (addons can be too large to sync for a free service), but it makes it not very useful: you'll be forced to copy-paste the addons folder anyway, so you might as well copy-paste the config folder while you're at it. $\endgroup$– VenryxApr 23, 2021 at 13:48
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4 Answers
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Depending which OS you're on, navigate to:
Linux
~/.config/blender
Mac
/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Blender/
Windows
%APPDATA%\Blender Foundation\Blender
Once there you should see folder(s) corresponding to the version(s) you currently have.
In my case here I have 2.66 and 2.67, just open the previous folder (2.66) since I had saved my settings there earlier and copy the config folder to the new one (2.67). What you really want however is the startup.blend and userpref.blend inside.
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11$\begingroup$ As an additional info: if you want to try out a new installation from a zip file you can ensure old settings are not overwritten by creating a config/ folder inside the version-folder. You can copy old settings as above to this folder and test out, without having to worry about the global settings for that version. These are local settings. $\endgroup$ May 23, 2013 at 9:57
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$\begingroup$ As general advice, this is not great. The reason Blender creates a new config directory is because they expect their config files to potentially change in different format. A user should go through the normal import process unless they have odd requirements. $\endgroup$– jpaughDec 11, 2020 at 2:43
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As mentioned by CharlesL, there is also a prompt when you start your new version of Blender:
answered Jul 21, 2013 at 0:52
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2$\begingroup$ Is there any way to access this after opening the new version multiple times? $\endgroup$ Feb 16, 2015 at 16:57
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$\begingroup$ @DantheMan
bpy.ops.wm.copy_prev_settings()looks like it, but I've yet to test it. $\endgroup$– gandalf3 ♦Feb 16, 2015 at 19:55 -
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if you want to know where Blender is storing your user-preferences, you can run this from the Python command line (within Blender).
bpy.utils.user_resource('CONFIG')
It will print out a value like:
'/home/ideasman42/.config/blender/2.76/config/'
A Wild RolandiXor Has Appeared
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answered Oct 12, 2015 at 14:27
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If you have tried out a zip version of Blender and then tried to install a newer version of Blender you won't get the 'Copy Previous Settings' option noted in gandalf3's answer. This is because when you use a zip version, even if only to try it out, it will create its own user preference folder. When you then install a newer version of Blender, it will see the user preferences folder exists and so not offer to 'Copy Previous Settings'.
To fix this you can simply navigate to where the preferences are stored (as shown in iKlsR's answer) and delete the preference folder for the version you are trying to install. For example, if I was installing Blender 2.76 and found the 'Copy Previous Settings' option didn't appear, I would delete the '2.76' folder the zipped version of Blender had previously created. When you next open Blender, it will detect there are no preferences for 2.76 and should again offer to 'Copy Previous Settings'.
answered Oct 12, 2015 at 13:57