Fastest Way To Restore Premiere Pro Workspaces

Have you saved over Premiere Pro’s default workspaces and need to get them back? Here is the quick lowdown on how to reset to the default workspaces. Then at the end I will show you how you can restore your custom ones too. First though, shut down Premiere Pro

1. Find the Layouts folder holding all the workspace files on your computer here: /Documents/Adobe/Premiere Pro/ 13.0/Layouts

Note: 13.0 is Premiere Pro 2019. Your version may be different depending on which version of Premiere Pro CC is installed on your machine.

2. Rename the Layouts folder to ‘Layouts2’

3. Restart Premiere Pro. All the factory default workspaces will now be restored. If you had created any personalised workspaces they will not be available anymore. Follow the next steps if you want to restore your personalised workspaces.

When you look back at the Layout2 folder you will see Premiere Pro has created a new folder called ‘Layouts’ which is the folder it is now using to hold the workspaces in. Layouts2 is not in use anymore but still holds your personalised workspaces.

The Workspaces panel at the top of the Premiere Pro app.

Inside the Layouts folder are files titled UserWorkspace(X).xml. Each UserWorkspace(X).xml file holds one of the workspaces. It may be for the Editing workspace or the Color workspace or any of the others. We want to find the one that is your personalised workspace. In my case I am looking for my FNQTraining Workspace.

4. Open the top UserWorkspace(X).xml file with a text editor app (right click over the file to show the ‘Open With’ floating menu).

5. Find (Ctrl + F) and type the word ‘username’. Then hit enter. The file below your username search represents the workspace. This example is the Editing workspace.

This is the EDITING userworkspace.xml file.

6. Close this file and open the next UserWorkspace.xml file and find (Ctrl + F) the word 'username' again until you find the file you are looking for.

7. Once you have identified the userWorkspace(X).xml that holds the workspace you are looking for (FNQTraining Workspace in this case) copy and paste that UserWorkspace.xml file into the Layouts folder.

8.Restart Premiere Pro and it should be there.

So that’s it in a nutshell.

Leave a comment if you have any questions or issues with the instructions.