Tip – Removing Old Camera Profiles

By mattk on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 10:39 am | Lightroom Tips.

This questions popped up a lot in the comments section yesterday, so I wanted to address it here in a post. The problem is that once you install Lightroom 2.2, it automatically adds the new profiles into the Camera Calibration panel right along with the old beta ones. They don't actually harm anything but I was really glad to see I'm not the only one who just hated the clutter of having 20 profiles listed in there and half of them with the word "beta" next to them. Anyway, thanks to my friend and blog-reader Howard Ignatius for jumping in and posting the fix for everyone in the comment section. I'm going to post it here as well though.

To remove the profiles go to the following folder (based on your operation system) and delete anything with the word "Beta" in it's title. Then restart Lightroom and all should be good in the world again.

Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles
(note: go to the Library folder for Macintosh HD, not your user account)

On Windows 2000 / XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

On Windows Vista: C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

Hope this helps.

45 Comments For Tip – Removing Old Camera Profiles

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  1. I am running Vista Ultimate and have no folder under c: named ProgramData. Any idea where they might be?

  2. Mark says:

    It’s there, Colby, it’s just hidden. To find it in Windows Explorer, click:

    Organize > Folder and Search Options > View > Show hidden files and folders

  3. Christopher says:

    Matt, thanks as always for this. In removing the beta stuff, I noticed that there are file for various cameras (D300 for example). But when i am in LR and go to the Camera Calibration panel, I don’t have a choice for a D300 profile. Because the metadata knows what camera I shot with, will it choose a profile for D300 only or should I have more pull downs in my menu?

  4. gene lowinger says:

    Matt
    I installed LR 2.2 yesterday, and now my camera profile panel on the bottom right just shows ‘embedded’/with the sliders, no individual camera profiles, so I can’t set up develop presets. What gives?

  5. AlKulon says:

    Thank you very much for a hint. Almost the whole day looking for where they are:)

  6. michaelbs says:

    Gene
    It says “embedded” because it’s not a raw file but a jpg/tiff/psd file you have open in Develop module.
    Pick a raw file and your problem has gone.

  7. Amish says:

    Wicked, thanks Matt. I’m running Vista Ultimate, and I just popped that line into windows explorer and it took me right to the proper directory.

  8. DaveK says:

    Matt,

    Thanks for the tip (as always).
    I’ve yet to install the LR2.2 update but before I go ahead do this and remove the beta profiles, can you advise what will happen to RAW files previously ‘developed’ with the appropriate beta profile?
    Will they revert back to the default LR profile setting or will such files automatically be migrated over to the corresponding final profile setting via LR2.2?

  9. Robert says:

    The easiest way to get there is to copy the path and paste into the Run command. It will take right there. On XP there were 2 folders with Beta…easy to delete

  10. For me, they migrated over to the released profiles automatically. However, as I mentioned in my blog, there may have been changes to the profiles between beta and release. Since my work flow applies camera calibration first, all my images could have some unexpected results by getting ride of beta profiles. So I would try both the beta and release profiles on the same image and make sure the results appear to be the same.

    For example, I use Nikon’s Vivid setting a lot so I would take an unedited image and apply Camera Vivid then Camera Vivid beta to see what happens. To do this you create a Virtual copy of a RAW image in LR, apply Camera Vivid to one and Camera Vivid beta to the other, then in the Library Module use the XY setting to compare beta vs release.

    So far I have not seen any differences in my work so I deleted the beta profiles. It would have been nice to have a list of those profiles that changed between beta and release, but using the above procedure worked well for me.

  11. OK so, if I delete them, will this alter my images previously developed with beta profiles? Do I have to set to every image the new profile?

  12. Thomas Klemz says:

    @DaveK
    At first, it looked like all my images had migrated over to the now official “Camera Standard” profile. However, the images looked darker. So I checked, and sure enough, even though it said “Camera Standard”, LR had processed them as Adobe Raw 4.4

    I had to switch the profiles to another one, and then back to the one I wanted (in my case “Camera Standard”) and then sync that with all my photos… I don’t have many (about a thousand), since I’m new to LR, so it wasn’t bad. But I’m positive there is a better way.

    This might have happened with me because I made the official profile my default, quit LR, deleted the beta profiles, and then opened LR again. Maybe if I hadn’t made the official profile the default, LR would have reverted properly.

    Just be sure to check your image to make sure it actually reverted to the profile you wanted. Even though it says one thing, it might still be processing with Raw 4.4

    Just my 2 cents (from an amateur…)

  13. I found this explanation of the profiles on the Adobe site, starting at the differences between beta1, beta2 and release. It has everything you need to know about each change:

    http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles_FAQ#WhatsNewBeta2

  14. Matt:

    I just loaded 2.2 yesterday and in the profiles tab I just have default, Camera Raw 3.6 and Camera Raw 4.2 (or something like that). No specific camera profiles.

    Any advice?

    Kevin

  15. Jack Larson says:

    Thanks Howard for passing on the Adobe URL; that is helpful information.

  16. Peter Witham says:

    Thank you, this has been driving me nuts. I banish you beta’s!

  17. Erol says:

    Hi to all

    What does happen with all the photos which has one of the beta profiles attached?
    I like to switch them to the new profiles before removing the beta ones. Is there a way to filter all of these photos by a filter or something like this.

    Regards
    Erol

  18. Ignasi says:

    Hello everybody!

    I just update the LR to 2.2 (before I had 2.1) and I follow the instructions to find the “beta” profiles.

    I use windows XP and I found two folders inside CameraProfiles folder:
    - Adobe Standard
    - Camera

    Both of them without any beta profile…

    You know which files I’ve to delete to appear just the right camera profile in LR?

    Thank you!

  19. Martyn Lucas says:

    Matt,

    You always provide “good” stuff!

    However, when I try to delete the profiles in LR I receive a default file no 43 notice and cannot delete. Any ideas?

    Thanks as always,

    Martyn

  20. Ced Bennett says:

    Thanks, Matt. Don’t forget that if you created Presets to make applying the camera profiles easier, they’ll also need to be updated (replaced, I think)to use the new profiles.

    Ced

  21. Philippe says:

    One more quirk when deleting the beta profiles: any image which was using a beta profile seems to look the same as when using the new released profiles, but the calibration tab no longer shows the profile name (with or without the term beta in it).

    Instead, after deleting the beta profiles, the profile field in the calibration tab is now empty: this can make it more difficult later to find out which profile (eg Standard vs. Portrait for Nikon) the image had been using (and is still using, albeit now it is the corresponding release profile), not to mention you have no idea which profile you are copying/pasting if you’d like to Sync this image with new ones…

  22. John Peterson says:

    Another great tip. Thanks Matt.

    John

  23. Richard says:

    >> Ignasi said,

    on December 18th, 2008 at 10:05 am
    Hello everybody!
    I just update the LR to 2.2 (before I had 2.1) and I follow the instructions to find the “beta” profiles.
    I use windows XP and I found two folders inside CameraProfiles folder:
    - Adobe Standard
    - Camera
    Both of them without any beta profile…

    If you did not install the beta profiles manually they will not be there. It looks like you probably did not install them.

  24. Jason Grover says:

    I was really getting annoyed about this. Thanks for the tip!

  25. Liangzhao says:

    Well, in my case, with LR 2.2, I only get three options:ACR 4.4, ACR 3.2 and Adobe Standard. any idea to get all these camera’s profile?

  26. Liangzhao says:

    I found those profile files in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles\ and also, i copy them over to
    C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles\, still can not find them in LR interface

  27. Nice, thanks for that.

  28. DaHen says:

    Was rather growing attached to the good old beta profiles.
    Hated to delete them. lol.

  29. Thomas says:

    Hi Matt,

    we had at the same time the same idea.

    I just wrote more or less the same posting on my blog (in german), about how to remove the beta profiles.

    have nice holidays,

    Thomas

  30. Chen says:

    This is really helpful, Thanks.

  31. Jerry Herman says:

    lr2.2.. i do not have any camera profiles listed under camera calibration..just adobe standard, acr 4.4. adobe standard beta and camera standard…use to have pextax listed but no longer…is the correct or is something missing.
    thanks Matt

  32. scott thompson says:

    All I have for profiles is :
    Embedded???

    I don’t have anything else to choose from???

  33. Michael Warf says:

    Cleaned things up nicely, thanks for the tip Matt! No more “Beta” in the list

  34. Tom Dolezal says:

    Thanks Matt that cleaned off the Beta profiles nicely.

    In that same drop down box I have ACR 4.4 and ACR 4.3 – do I need both? If not how can I remove the redundant version

    TIA

  35. Michael says:

    Ok this is a neat feature in LR2.2 , but what about the two new styles released recently to improve skin tones…called P-Studio and P-Snapshot- i dont see these?

  36. Hemant says:

    Hi Matt

    After removing the beta profiles, I see profiles for Camera D2X Mode 1,2, 3 and standard Camera profiles like Landscape, Neutral, Portrait etc.

    I use Nikon D90. Should camera profiles for D90 appear? Or should I use standard Camera profiles like Landscape, Neutral, Portrait?

    Regards,
    Hemant

  37. emilio says:

    Hello,

    Annoying indeed — took a while but I (XP user) found the profiles under
    C:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

    “\All Users.WINDOWS\” – ?

    Thanks for the tip,
    emilio

  38. Lance says:

    Emilio,

    Thanks for the info. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent looking for that cameraprofiles folder without success. Your tip made me think about searching for hidden files also. I then found it. Don’t know why it was hidden but the problem is solved.

  39. Grateful Reader says:

    Thank you so much for your website and this post in particular. Those beta files were driving me bonkers!

  40. Joel Rodriguez says:

    Thanks for posting how to delete the beta profiles. I love my cleaner profile menu.

  41. Arno Nasshan says:

    Hi Matt,
    just installed the LR3 Beta Version and with the Canon 7D it only show “Beta” and nothing else under the Camera Calibration.
    I removed all other camera profiles but not even the ACR or any other camera calibration will show.

    anybody has an input on this.

    thanks

  42. plb says:

    There have been a number of questions about whether profiles for cameras such as the D90 and D300 were supposed to appear in the Camera Calibration panel. Did anyone get any answer to this? I was unable to find an answer on Adobe site.

  43. Jim says:

    I made a camera profile with X-rite Passport.It shows in both Camera Raw and Lightroom.I want to delete the profile,but am having a problem.I have found the camera profiles folders.The profiles that are showing are .DCP files.The .DNG profile I made isn’t showing anywhere in these folders.Any ideas?

  44. Jason says:

    Jim:
    Once you delete the .DCP files you no longer want just restart lightroom and they will be gone. You can search for the profile you created with X-rite Passport or in XP go to C:\Documents and Settings\imaging\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

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