Reset your Maya preferences

Resetting your Maya preferences can be a good first step in troubleshooting many issues that can occur, such as missing menus, failure to start, or slow performance when moving objects in vertex mode.

When you remove your preferences, either by renaming or deleting the directory, Maya creates new preferences the next time you run the application. This refreshes tools and options to their default values, and often provides a quick fix for any new, unexpected tool behavior.

Note: If you just want to return to the default factory settings in the Preferences window, choose Edit > Restore Default Settings from the menubar (above the Categories section). Be aware that this resets the preferences in every category in the Preferences window.

Tip: To ensure that Maya always runs smoothly, it can be particularly useful to remove your preferences whenever you install a new hot fix, service pack, or updated version.

Before removing your preferences, check if you have saved any data in the affected directories, and create any backups that you require. (For example, if you have saved images in the \projects\default\renderData or \projects\default\images directories.)

To remove all preferences

1. Locate the following directory:
   • Windows: <drive>:\Documents\maya\<version>\

   • Mac OS X: /Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/Autodesk/maya/<version>/
   • Linux: /home/<username>/maya/<version>/
   Tip: The prefs folder is found in the same folder as the presets and scripts folders.
2. Either delete the directory, or rename it if you want to keep a copy (for example /myprefs_backup/).

   Renaming the directory is strongly recommended, as it gives you the option of restoring your preferences if this process does not fix the issue.

3. Restart Maya, and select the option to create default preferences if prompted.

   Maya recreates the default preferences directories in the same location. The interface is restored to the ‘factory default’ layout.

Important: If you prefer a more iterative troubleshooting approach, you can instead remove only a subset of the preferences directories. For example, remove only the ..\<version> \projects\default\autosave directory first to see if this resolves the issue you are experiencing. If the issue persists, you can try removing ..\ <version> \projects\default\clips, then ..\ <version>\projects\default\data, and so on.