How to fix missing presets
A short troubleshooter that covers every common cause of missing presets across Lightroom Mobile, Desktop and Classic. Try each step in order — the fix is almost always in the first two.
- Device
- Phone or computer
- App
- Lightroom (any version)
- Time
- 5 min
Step-by-step
- 1
Update Lightroom on every device
Most 'presets not showing' reports come from outdated apps. Update Lightroom Mobile from the App Store or Play Store, and update Lightroom Desktop / Classic through Adobe Creative Cloud before doing anything else.
- 2
On mobile, import the ZIP directly
Open any photo → Presets → three-dot menu (⋯) → Import Presets, then pick the 123presets ZIP from Downloads. Do not extract on the phone first, and do not use the + button at the top (that imports photos, not presets).
- 3
On desktop and Classic, unzip first
Lightroom Desktop and Classic can't read the ZIP itself. Unzip the archive (double-click on Mac, right-click → Extract All on Windows) and import the XMP files from inside.
- 4
Look in the right place
New imports go into a User Presets group on desktop, and into a pack-named group inside the Presets panel on mobile. On Classic, presets only appear inside the Develop module — press D to switch there.
- 5
Restart, then reinstall as a last resort
Fully close Lightroom (quit the app on desktop, swipe it off the app switcher on mobile) and reopen. If presets still don't show, uninstall and reinstall Lightroom Mobile and re-import the ZIP — your synced library will come back untouched.
Update first, then re-import. That combination solves the vast majority of missing-preset cases.
On desktop, importing the ZIP instead of the XMP files inside is by far the most common cause of nothing appearing.
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