# Cannot create custom brush preset - installed local adjustment presets don't show up



## Laurawielo (Apr 16, 2015)

I am working on a Mac with OX X Yosemite. I have Lightroom CC. 

I've been trying to create a brush in the Develop module. I create my brush and then I click _"Save Current Settings As New Preset_" from the Effect drop-down menu. I am able to type in a name but once I click "create" my new preset does *not* show up in the New Preset dialog box (drop down-menu).

Similarly, my newly installed local adjustment presets (brushes) don't show up either. To install, I click Lightroom > Preferences > Show Lightroom Presets Folder and then I drag in my .Irtemplate files into the folder. The newly added presets *show up* in my Finder window however, they do *not *show up in the Effect drop-down menu. 

I cannot create custom brushes, and it is very frustrating, please help!


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 16, 2015)

Hi, welcome to the forum.

In the drop-down list of brushes, do the "standard" Local Adjustment Brushes appear in the list, i.e. Dodge, Burn, Soften Skin, etc.?

I'm confused by the second part of the issue, specifically what folder you are dragging the *.lrtemplate files from and to? Note that the file extension begins with a lower-case L, not upper-case I.


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## Laurawielo (Apr 16, 2015)

Yes the "standard" Local Adjustment Brushes appear. I am not able to add new ones, either by creating then in Lightroom or installing ones I've downloaded from online. 

As far as installing the Lightroom brushes, I follow the instructions found here labeled "Create Local Adjustment Effect Presets"
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/help/apply-local-adjustments.html
Here is a picture of what I'm doing






I restarted Lightroom after installing them, and they still didn't show up.


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## Laurawielo (Apr 16, 2015)

I realize I have a few custom brushes in my folder, I remember running into this issue last time I tried to install custom brushes, and I have no idea how it ended up working. My two new "sunflare" presents will not show up in my Effect drop-down.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 16, 2015)

Do ANY of the non-standard brush presets appear in the Effect drop-down list, or is it just the latest two Sunflare presets that are missing?

Are there any special characters in the name of the two new Sunflare presets?


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## Laurawielo (Apr 16, 2015)

There are no special characters, the presets are labeled "Sunflare (Left Side).lrtemplate" and "Sunflare (Right Side).lrtemplate" 

Yes, some non-standard brush presets appear. I can't remember how I got them to work last time. However, I have never been able to create custom brush presets from scratch. As I mentioned before, once I click "create", my new brush does *not* show up in the drop down.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 16, 2015)

I've just tried to create a brush called "Sunflare (Left Side).lrtemplate" on both OSX and Windows, with no trouble. So, given that the new preset is being written to the correct presets sub-folder, I'd suspect that either you have too many presets in the folder (though I'm not aware of any specific limit), or there's a corrupt preset in that folder which is causing Lightroom to balk, or there's a problem with the preferences file.

The latter one is easy to test, i.e. try trashing the preferences file, then restart Lightroom to see if the missing presets then appear. If that doesn't work, the way I'd approach things would be first to rename the current Local Adjustment Presets sub-folder, then start Lightroom, then try creating a new preset and see if it appears. If it does, that would tend to indicate the issue is with one of your presets.

But I'm getting ahead of myself....first thing I'd do is reset the prefs file....see here.


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## Modesto Vega (Apr 16, 2015)

This is another Save option on a list, like the tone curves saveoption. This is also Yosemite. Where does the dialog take you? Wheredoes it save the files? Where have the custom brushes you already created saved?


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## Laurawielo (Apr 16, 2015)

Jim,

I first, renamed the preferences file. This didn't solve my issue. Then I renamed the current Local Adjustment Presets sub-folder...LR created a new Local Adjustments Preset folder for me and it was fixed! I am now able to create and save custom brushes. Why does this fix it? How does renaming a file fix something like this? Although the problem was fixed, my custom brushes were gone- the only ones I could see was the default brushes. All I had to do was drag the brush files from my old renamed folder into my new folder - now everything is where it needs to be. 

However! My recently installed sunflare brushes were not showing up. Everything else seemed to be working with the brush panel so I didn't know why this was happening. I went back to the website that I downloaded them from and found that they are NOT brush presets! They are Lightroom presets - that effect the whole image! Hence, why there were not showing up in my Brush Effects panel. Why is everything labeled _.lrtemplate - _ugh confusing.

Thank you for your help! Although, I am curious why renaming a folder fixed this issue. -Should I go back to my preferences and restore my preset folder to it's original name?


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 17, 2015)

If there was a corrupt preset which was causing the problem (or possibly the "wrong" preset type being in the Local Adjustment Presets folder), renaming the folder simply allows Lightroom to create a new one, hence avoiding the one causing the problem. Thus you are then able to create new presets again. Check in the drop-down list to make sure that the "standard" Local Adjustment presets (Teeth Whitening, Dodge, Burn, etc.) are present (they may not be automatically restored when Lightroom created the new replacement folder)....if they're not there, go to Preferences>Presets tab and click on "Restore Local Adjustment Presets".

Regarding your Preferences, it's really up to you if you revert to the old file (I would, if only because I use some Publish Service and Export plug-ins, and these have to be re-installed if I reset my Preferences file).


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