How to install presets in Lightroom Desktop
Install your XMP presets on Lightroom (cloud) on Mac or Windows in about a minute. This walkthrough uses the current cloud-based Lightroom app — for Lightroom Classic, see the Classic install guide instead.
- Device
- Mac or Windows
- App
- Lightroom (cloud)
- Time
- 3 min
Step-by-step
- 1
Unzip your download first
Locate the 123presets ZIP in your Downloads folder. On Mac, double-click it — macOS unzips it automatically. On Windows, right-click and choose Extract All. Inside the unzipped folder you'll find the XMP preset files Lightroom actually needs.
- 2
Open Lightroom Desktop and any photo
Launch Lightroom Desktop and open (or import) any photo. Click the Edit icon on the right side of the window — the one that looks like sliders — to reveal the editing panels.
- 3
Open the Presets panel
At the bottom of the edit toolbar, click Presets. The Presets panel slides out with Lightroom's built-in preset groups already visible.
- 4
Import your XMP files
Click the three-dot menu (⋯) inside the Presets panel and choose Import Presets. In the file dialog, browse to your unzipped 123presets folder, select all the XMP files (Cmd+A on Mac, Ctrl+A on Windows), and click Import.
- 5
Find your new presets
Lightroom drops the imported presets into a User Presets group named after your pack. Click any preset to preview it, then click again to apply. From here they'll sync to Lightroom Mobile automatically if cloud sync is on.
You can select all XMP files at once with Cmd+A on Mac or Ctrl+A on Windows — no need to import them one by one.
If Import Presets is missing from the three-dot menu, update Lightroom to the latest version — very old builds hide the option.
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