For CB 15: Please put ALL user prefs in one folder

After installing CB on a new system, I tried to move my prefs over from a very old Mac system.

I found out that the pref files are bizarrely spread out all over the disk. Thankfully I found the below table (but only after many hours of trying to figure things out manually)

List of settings files and their purpose

Setting… Stored in…
Color setup (default) Defaults.xml
Color setup Saved with project file
Crossfade presets \Presets\RAMPresets.xml
Device maps Folder where program is installed into \Device Maps *.xml
Device Panels \Panels<device name>.xml
Device port input / output setup Port Setup.xml
Drum maps \Drumaps\ as *.drm
Edit modifier keys (current) Edit Modifiers.xml
EQ presets \Presets\VstEqPresets.xml
External FX / Instruments setups in VST Connections External Plugins.xml
Insert presets \Presets\InsertsFolderPresets.pxml
Installed MIDI devices Midi Devices.bin
Key command presets \Presets\KeyCommands<preset name>.xml
Key commands (current) Key Commands.xml
Logical Editor presets \Presets\Logical Edit<preset name>.xml
MediaBay auto scan drives FileSysObserver.xml
MediaBay column, list, attribute settings MediaDefaults.xml
MediaBay factory defaults for “Reset” MediaFactoryDefaults.xml
MediaBay settings MediaDefaults.xml
MediaBay database mediabay3.bin (former versions: mediabay.bin)
MediaBay already scanned folders scannedFolders3.bin (former versions: scannedFolders.bin)
MIDI FX presets \Presets<plugin name><preset name>.xml
MIDI Insert presets \Presets\MidiInsertsPresets\ as *.xml
MIDI Snapshots \Presets\MIDI snapshot<device name> as *.xml
Mixer (or channel) settings Saved in the last active folder as *.vmx (VST Mixer settings)
Mixer view presets Saved with project file
Patch name scripts \Scripts\Patchnames\ as *.txt
Preferences (current) Defaults.xml
Preferences configuration presets \Presets\Configurations<preset name>.xml
Preferences configuration Configuration.xml
Quantize presets \Presets\RAMPresets.xml
Score custom palettes Score Custom Palettes.xml
Score default font Score Default Font.xml
Score guitar symbols for dialogue, symbol inspector GuitarLib.xml
Score setting window setup Score Setting Window.xml
Score staff presets \Presets\Staff Presets as *.xml file
Template user projects \Templates<template name>.cpr
Tool bar presets \Presets\RAMPresets.xml
Track control presets \Presets\RAMPresets.xml
Track presets (included with the program) Folder where program is installed into \Track Presets (with sub folders \Audio, \Instrument, \Midi, \Multi) as *.trackpreset
Track presets (user defined) Win: \Users<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Track Presets
Mac: \Library\Application Support\Steinberg\Track Presets (with sub folders \Audio, \Instrument, \Midi, \Multi) as *.trackpreset
Transport panel presets \Presets\RAMPresets.xml
Usage profile protocol Usage Profile.xml (only if enabled in the preferences)
VST Connections presets \Presets\RAMPresets.xml
VST2 plug-ins (not loadable) Vst2xBlacklist.xml
VST2 plug-ins and instruments Vst2xPlugins.xml
VST3 plug-ins and instruments VstPlugInfo.xml
VST3 presets (included with the program) In the application folder under \VST3 Presets as *.vstpreset file
VST3 presets (public, for all programs) Win: C:\Users<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Track Presets
Mac: \Library\Application Support\Steinberg\Track Presets as *.vstpreset file
Workspaces Presets (global) Window Layouts.xml
Workspaces Saved with project file
Zoom presets \Presets\RAMPresets.xml

For the next version, it would be great if they were all in one folder in the user preferences folder. So in OSX

/Users/username/Library/Preferences/Application Files/Cubase ##/

That would make copying them to another system, backing up or other uses much easier.

3 Likes

Isn’t that list of files already in the same single folder that you can copy to the new machine?

from Cubase Pro Help

On Windows, preference files are stored in the following location: \Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\program_name\.

On the Start menu, you will find a shortcut to this folder for easy access.

On macOS, preference files are stored in the following location: /Library/Preferences// under your home directory.

The full path is: /Users/username/Library/Preferences/program name/.

You can use Profiles to do this as well.

1 Like

Most of the files are in that one folder, just not everything.
“VST3 Presets” are all in you own folder under your “Documents”, which makes sense of course, as many other applications might want to write their presets there (in practice, they don’t always and have their own folders).
Halion Sonic and other Apps have their own folders under %APPDATA%\Steinberg (or the Mac equivalent), too, which makes sense, as they are also standalone applications.
“Track Presets” though also have their own folder in %APPDATA%, which tbh I cannot think of a good reason for.
Profiles afaik don’t cover all those files, so if you don’t save your whole %APPDATA%\Steinberg-Folder when migrating Systems, you lose part of your config (and your Documents-Folder, but I assume that anyone moving systems is copying that one…)
It’s no problem if you know it, but I gather most people don’t.

Yeah - i was trying to move all the prefs from an old High Sierra machine (CB 10.5 Pro) to a new M2Pro and getting all the prefs transferred over was quite challenging.