Why are my presets not showing in Lightroom Mobile?
Presets don't appear after you import them? Nine times out of ten it's one of five things. Work through this list top to bottom — the fix is almost always in the first three steps.
- Device
- iPhone or Android
- App
- Lightroom Mobile (free)
- Time
- 5 min
Step-by-step
- 1
Confirm you used the right Import menu
The presets go under Presets → three-dot menu (⋯) → Import Presets — not the + icon at the top of the app, which imports photos. Using the wrong button silently does nothing, so a lot of 'nothing happened' cases start here.
- 2
Update Lightroom Mobile
Older versions of Lightroom hide the Import Presets option or can't read modern ZIP files. Open the App Store or Play Store, tap Update, then relaunch Lightroom before trying again. This alone fixes the majority of missing-preset reports.
- 3
Make sure you selected the ZIP itself
In the file picker, tap the actual 123presets ZIP — not a preview thumbnail, screenshot, or a random file next to it. If you accidentally select a single loose XMP file, no new group will appear.
- 4
Check inside your preset groups
Open Presets again and scroll — new imports land in their own group named after your pack, or inside User Presets. If the panel is collapsed, tap each group header to expand it.
- 5
Restart the app, then reinstall as a last resort
Close Lightroom completely (swipe it off the app switcher) and reopen it. If presets still don't show, delete and reinstall Lightroom Mobile, sign back in, and re-import the ZIP. Warning: on the free Lightroom Mobile plan, any photos or edits that aren't synced to your Adobe account will be lost when you uninstall. Confirm your work is synced (or exported to your Camera Roll) before doing this.
Import the ZIP directly on mobile — Lightroom Mobile handles the unzipping for you.
The most common cause is an outdated Lightroom Mobile app. Update it from the App Store or Play Store and try again.
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