Photoshop Tip: Deleting Your Preferences File in a Pinch

Earlier today my Quick Mask Mode (which I use a lot) in Photoshop stopped working completely. I’m not sure what happened to cause this, but I had to have it in order to complete the project I was working on. It’s my favorite masking method! After some poking around I suspected a bad preferences file to be the culprit.

Here’s a trick to have Photoshop delete and create a new preferences file on start up.

Restart Photoshop and press and hold (while Photoshop starts back up):

Mac: Shift+Option+Command

Windows: Shift+Alt+Ctrl

A pop-window will appear asking you to Delete the Photoshop Settings file. Click Yes.

That’s it! It fixed my Quick Mask Mode issue… now I’m back to quick masking!

Note: Creating a new preferences file will revert your palette arrangement and any saved preferences back to Photoshop’s default. Small price to pay to fix a troubled Photoshop, though.