Where is user preference file of Blender
GOAL
To find preference file of Blender and view the contents of the file.
Environment
Blender 2.83 (I’m using 2.83 because it is LTS)
Windows 10
What is saved in preference files?
There are two areas where Blender’s defaults are stored:
The Preferences file stores keymap, add-ons theme and other options.
The Startup File stores the scene, Workspaces and interface which is displayed at startup and when loading a new file (File ‣ New).
from Blender2.91 manual
Where are user preference file and startup file?
Reference: Blender’s Directory Layout
Both of the preference file and the startup file are in USER directory. In my case, windows, the USER directory was C:\Users\<USER_NAME>\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.83.
The config directory is Blender\2.83.\config\ and you can find config directory with python API below.
bpy.utils.user_resource('CONFIG')The preference file is config\userpref.blend. This is the .blend file with no world and object. If there is no userpref.blend, start blender and change the preference with the Edit > Preferences…
The startup file is config\startup.blend. If there is no startup.blend, you can create it with File > Defaults > Save Setup File. This is the .blend file to open when blender starts.
What are preference files for?
Save/Load preference
These files are used to save user changed preferences. You can use other preferences by putting files in config directory.
Backup
If you copy or remove there files, you can create backups.
Reset
You can reset preferences by renaming or removing there preference files.
In Windows 10, this is very strange, but I could only find that Blender Foundation folder in this directory:
C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Packages\BlenderFoundation.Blender3.3LTS_ppwjx1n5r4v9t\LocalCache\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\3.3\config
Note: in this case, it’s a Blender 3.3 LTS installation in a fresh Windows 10.
Hi. I found this post recently.
Each directory or file in “Blender Foundation” is created when we use it in Blender. For example, Blender Foundation\Blender\3.6\config\userpref.blend will be created when you edit preferences for the first time on the Blender UI.
You should have already solved it but I hope this help someone else, too.