How to save space when updating photoshop

If you are using photoshop for a while, you just have gone from Photoshop 2020 to Photoshop 2021. but if you are using Photoshop for a really long time, like me, you may even go back to Photoshop 2015. Or even CS6, who knows…

Here is the thing, each time that you update, photoshop keeps a copy of many of your options, settings, brushes, presets, and many more. Adobe is clever to not purge those folders when you update. Who knows, maybe a bug will force you to revert…

But, apparently, you can definitely throw away the older version and save quite a bit of space. (The same can be said for space-saving with Lightroom, I guess Adobe does not care about space when they push an update)

Two words of warning though:

1. Always save the last version, Adobe sometimes does mess up and you need to revert.
2. make sure that you have copied all your brushes, presets, and other settings (each program will have its own)

On windows

1. Access the AppData folder by running the %appdata% command from the Run menu
2. enter the roaming folder, enter the Adobe folder
3. backup what you want.
4. delete all the previous versions.

On Mac

1. Access the Application Support folder by running the finder app selecting the goto menu and hitting the option key (Application Support is the mac’s equivalent of the AppData folder)
2. enter the roaming folder, enter the Adobe folder
3. back up what you want.
4. delete all the previous versions.

For my laptop, I saved about a gig of data from photoshop alone. How much did you save?