Hi, this is Anne with Graphic Design How To, and today I'm going to show you how to reset
your preferences in Adobe Illustrator.
First I want to show you how to do it, then I want to go over why you would want to do
it, and some reasons why you might not want to do it.
All right, let's get started.
To reset your preferences, first you'll want to quit out of Illustrator.
So go to Illustrator > Quit Illustrator.
On PC is probably going to be File > Quit Illustrator.
Now I'm going to restart the program.
And as I do, I'm going to hold down Shift OPTION and CMD on a Mac, that's CTRL ALT Shift
on a PC.
And so now you might notice that I was using a light interface, and now it's dark, because
that is the default for Illustrator.
And all my preferences have been reset.
So I'm going to go ahead and Create New, I'm going to come up here to Print and Letter,
and we'll Create.
All of my windows are reset.
I can still come up here to Window and choose my regular workspace though, because this
is something I have saved in a different location.
But my interface is still dark.
I'm going to go ahead and change that by hitting CMD K, or CTRL K, and I'll just go ahead and
shift it to the normal interface that I'm used to.
Now some people refer to this as 'trashing your preferences.'
Before the keyboard shortcut became available, you would just find the file in your Application
Support folders, and drag it to your trashcan and delete it.
So that's probably also what's happening when you use the keyboard shortcut.
When you restart, Illustrator creates a new preferences file.
So when people say 'trash your preferences,' they just mean to reset them.
If your keyboard shortcut isn't working for some reason, you can do this on a Mac: you
can hit Shift CMD H, and that'll bring you to your Home folder.
If you can't see the library, right click and choose Show View Options.
Then make sure Show Library Folder is checked here.
So we'll go to Library > Preferences > Adobe Illustrator 25 settings - that's the version
I'm using right now - EN US, and then Adobe Illustrator Prefs.
And you'll just throw this away by dragging it to your trash, or hitting CMD Delete.
Now on a PC, you'll go to Users, then your username, then App Data Roaming > Adobe > Adobe
Illustrator > your version number > Settings and then EN US > X64 and Adobe Illustrator
Prefs.
I feel like 'trashing' something makes you feel like you might accidentally throw something
important away, and this can be kind of scary for newer users, at least it was for me when
I was new.
But it's okay to do it your preferences.
So here's why you would want to do this: certain shortcuts stop working, some tools don't work,
things like that.
Just if there's weird behavior that's happening a lot in Illustrator that you're not used
to seeing, you might want to reset your preferences.
Now let's go over why you might NOT want to do this.
Resetting or trashing your preferences is going to wipe out your custom settings.
Your preferences manage the commands and panel settings in Illustrator.
So when you open Illustrator, the position of your panels and your commands are stored
in the Illustrator preferences file.
A lot of program settings are also stored in there.
So if you go and open your preferences, a lot of these check marks and things like that
are going to be stored in that preferences file.
If you throw it away, these will all reset.
That includes like file saving options, performance options, type options, and options for your
plugins and scratch disks.
Now all of your preference settings will be saved every time you quit.
So if I quit again, and then open Illustrator backup, those most recent settings will have
saved so it should have the lighter interface and all that stuff.
All right, if you liked this video, I'm also out on TikTok now and I'm doing little short
tutorials on Illustrator and Photoshop over there.
So I left a link in my description below if you want to check it out.
Thank you!!!