Where to keep your Lightroom Plugins.
There’s been some questions and concern expressed in a few places about the where you should keep your Lightroom plugins (I’m not referring to Web Engines here, they do have a specific place).
The SDK tells us that Lightroom looks in a specific place for Plugins.
In Mac OS (current user) ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Modules
In Mac OS (all users) /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Modules
In Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\Modules
In Windows Vista C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Modules
Plugins located here are automatically loaded and can be both enabled or disabled by the Plugin Manager, but not removed.
This lack of removal is causing pain for a number of users, so a few Lightroom users/gurus/developers were talking about this a while ago. We bantered back and forth about how we work around this limitation. In the end we figured on a simple solution. Manually create a folder beside Modules called ‘Plugins’ and store your plugins there. This allows you to have a central repository for all your Lightroom plugins, and to be able to add or remove them using the Plugin Manager. This isn’t any kind of mandatory or definitive solution, but may be of use if you feel you need to be able to remove plugins without losing them.

Can you fix the focus on a blurry photo after the fact?
The birth of Mirrorless Cameras
Choosing your first dSLR camera
New York City can be beautiful!
The Fujifilm Finepix X10, A Review
Choosing the Right Light Stand
Photojojo iPhone Telephoto Lens review — AudioCast
My week with Q
How To Become A Successful Photographer
"When the Wind Stopped" — poem with 4 photos
Tips for Textures
Butterflies in Motion
Cast aways - saving those photographic memories
One Man Show: My 25 Years With Digital Photography
Studio, Flash, & Available Light — Three Books Reviewed
Portrait styling: dangerous pairings
Adobe Photoshop CS6 Product Managers Interview Audiocast
A gift of flowers: unfold your senses
On Set of "Love & Robots" the Film
Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk Inkjet Paper — Audiocast











Planning “National Geographic” style photo travel
Wilderness Travel 1 Rainforests – Essential Gear
Backlighting Basics
A Brief History Of Light & Photography: Part 3 of 3
A Brief History Of Light & Photography: Part 2 Of 3
What Moves You?
FIGURES IN MOTION: Decades of Evolving Personal Imagery in Photography, Part 7
Lomography Store, Austin, Texas — GALLERY
GALLERY — Up to $1,000 Reward for Cattle Rustlers
Taking your Portraiture Higher
The "Bible" of Time-Lapse Photography
Interview with Harold Davis — Closeup Maestro of Flowers & Water Drops
Interview with Steve Caplin — Photoshop Digital Artist, Commercial Illustrator, & Author
Easy technique to select, edit and sequence keywords for web
How much should you charge for a photograph?



























Comments
I like the idea, but on XP Application Data is a hidden directory. Even though I’ve enabled display of hidden files within Explorer, Lightroom doesn’t appear to honor this request. When trying to Add a plugin you cannot get to the created Plugins folder.
Well, I went ahead and changed Application Data to remove the hidden attribute. I’m not aware of anything that this will hurt, so unless I find a better location for the Plugins folder I’ll keep it here.
Hi Sean“In Windows XP C:\Documents and Users\username\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\Modules”
Documents and USERS???
Harry
Good catch Harry.. Ironically that was a cut and paste!
Even funnier, it’s a cut and paste from the SDK!
Post new comment