Unable to reset Brush settings in Affinity Photo back to default

[Kahrkura]

I am unable to reset the Brush settings in Affinity Photo back to default. I've tried all the Reset buttons on all the Brush - Selection tabs as well as the Reset Brushes option in the Clear User Data window. Neither starting a new project, restarting the app, or restarting my PC has resolved my issue either. I've been unable to find a solution to my problem online.

[carl123]

In the same screen where you saw "Clear User Data" there is a "Reset Brushes" option, did you try that?

Bear in mind this resets brushes across all your Affinity apps and you may have to reinstall any additional brush packs you have purchased

[Kahrkura]

Yes I have, to no effect.

[carl123]

Sorry I should have read your post better

Are you on Windows or Mac and if Windows did you install the MSIX or exe version?

[Kahrkura]

Windows and exe.

[carl123]

Close all Affinity apps

Enter %appdata% in File Explorer then navigate to

....\Affinity\Common\2.0\user\raster_brushes.propcol"

Renaming that file to "raster_brushes.old" will force the app to recreate it when you next start the app

There is also a vector_brushes.propcol file for the vector brushes if you ever need to do that one as well

[Kahrkura]

Test

[Kahrkura]

I'm having a peculiar problem of posting this reply. It keeps getting blocked. I'll try censoring some of the text until it goes through.

I should specify, I'm using Affinity Photo 1.0.

I have followed these instructions except to [REDACTED] instead. The app did indeed recreate those .propcol files upon restarting it, but it seems to have done nothing in resetting my brush back to default in the app itself.

Additionally, I have now tried uninstalling and reinstalling Affinity Photo and yet my brush settings persist.

Edit: Apparently the website doesn't like me posting the path to the relevant file. [REDACTED] is the location of the aforementioned file, but for Affinity Photo 1.0

Edited November 19, 2023 by Kahrkura
See Edit.

[carl123]

6 minutes ago, Kahrkura said:

but it seems to have done nothing in resetting my brush back to default in the app itself.

Can you elaborate a bit more on exactly what you mean by "resetting my brush back to default"?

[Kahrkura]

I'm trying to have all the settings of my brush tool (General, Dynamics, Texture) reverted to what they were before I made many changes to them. Basically I want my brush to look like what it did when I originally installed the app, that familiar circle.

[carl123]

I'm afraid I'm out of ideas.

I'll let someone else continue with this or the official support staff will be back on Monday for you

[Kahrkura]

I appreciate the effort. If someone else has any advise, I'm all ears. 

Also willing to settle to just see a screenshot of the default General, Dynamics, and Texture settings on a first-time install of the app. At least then I could get back to working on my project... probably.

Edit: I've decided to just manually adjust the settings until I get close to something like what I need. Gotta get away from that sunk cost fallacy. 

Edited November 19, 2023 by Kahrkura

[KarinC]

1 hour ago, Kahrkura said:

I'm trying to have all the settings of my brush tool (General, Dynamics, Texture) reverted to what they were before I made many changes to them. Basically I want my brush to look like what it did when I originally installed the app, that familiar circle.

From what I understand you can only reset the changes to a brush while you are editing it. Once you exit the menu you can't reset the brush. You should make a duplicate of the brush before changing the settings. I learned this the hard way.

[walt.farrell]

Renaming or deleting the raster_brushes.propcol file would have:

1. Deleted all the raster brushes.
2. Then reinstalled all the factory-installed brushes.
3. Then (if you have any brushes installed via Account from the Affinity Store) reinstalled all of them from the Store.

At that point, any brushes that you installed manually, or created manually, would be gone. You would have to recreate them or reinstall them.

All the raster brushes at that point must be set to their default settings. There is no other choice.

[Callum]

6 hours ago, Kahrkura said:

I appreciate the effort. If someone else has any advise, I'm all ears. 

Also willing to settle to just see a screenshot of the default General, Dynamics, and Texture settings on a first-time install of the app. At least then I could get back to working on my project... probably.

Edit: I've decided to just manually adjust the settings until I get close to something like what I need. Gotta get away from that sunk cost fallacy. 

Would you be able to provide a screen recording demonstrating you renaming the brushes.propcol file and then reopening the app and brushes still not being reset to default settings?

Thanks
C

[Old Bruce]

7 hours ago, Kahrkura said:

I'm trying to have all the settings of my brush tool (General, Dynamics, Texture) reverted to what they were before I made many changes to them. Basically I want my brush to look like what it did when I originally installed the app, that familiar circle.

Would not the Reset Brushes button in the Affinity Preferences Miscellaneous section do what you want?

[walt.farrell]

4 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Would not the Reset Brushes button in the Affinity Preferences Miscellaneous section do what you want?

It should.

But so should using the Ctrl run-up (Clear User Data) dialog, and renaming raster_brushes.propcol. I wonder if we're all misinterpreting what the OP wants, or if their expectations are incorrect in some way.

[James Ritson]

Hopefully I've understood this correctly!

@Kahrkura perhaps frustratingly, there is no brush within all the categories that exactly mirrors the default brush settings when you first run the app. This is something I found difficult for a workflow where you switch to a textured brush but then just want a basic round brush with tight spacing (e.g. for masking purposes). The round brush presets on the Basic category have wider spacing which is insufficient for this.

Try the Masking category on the Brushes panel. They're designed to be as close as possible to the default brush, so you can pick something like "Tight Spacing - Medium Soft", then bring the Hardness up to 80% if you want to match the default brush value. These use a small spacing value so are good for painting with masks.

Alternatively, under any brush category click the panel options icon (the three bars to the right) and choose New Round Brush. This will create a basic round brush with the default parameters: Hardness at 80%, Spacing at 15%, Flow at 100% and Width at 64px.

Hope that helps.

[Kahrkura]

On 11/20/2023 at 12:44 AM, James Ritson said:

Hopefully I've understood this correctly!

@Kahrkura perhaps frustratingly, there is no brush within all the categories that exactly mirrors the default brush settings when you first run the app. This is something I found difficult for a workflow where you switch to a textured brush but then just want a basic round brush with tight spacing (e.g. for masking purposes). The round brush presets on the Basic category have wider spacing which is insufficient for this.

Try the Masking category on the Brushes panel. They're designed to be as close as possible to the default brush, so you can pick something like "Tight Spacing - Medium Soft", then bring the Hardness up to 80% if you want to match the default brush value. These use a small spacing value so are good for painting with masks.

Alternatively, under any brush category click the panel options icon (the three bars to the right) and choose New Round Brush. This will create a basic round brush with the default parameters: Hardness at 80%, Spacing at 15%, Flow at 100% and Width at 64px.

Hope that helps.

This.

Saved my bacon with this solution. Didn't have the time to reply until now, but you have my thanks!