Start with the two-minute check
Three situations produce the same symptom. Identify yours first.
What you see | Possible cause | First safe check |
|---|---|---|
A system preset vanished after a printer, nozzle, or vendor switch | Filtered out as incompatible, or unsupported presets hidden | Select the printer and nozzle it was made for |
An edited preset is gone after a restart | Never saved as a named user preset | Look for your name in the user preset list |
All custom presets vanished after an update; one entry shows unsupported | A different profile or account folder is being loaded | Open Help > Show Configuration Folder |
Cause 1: the preset may be filtered out
OrcaSlicer system filament presets carry compatibility conditions, so a preset made for one printer, nozzle, or vendor can drop out of the dropdown as soon as the active setup no longer matches. When a filter is the cause, returning to the matching setup brings the preset back without touching any files.
The 2.4.1 and 2.4.2 release notes record repairs for presets that pointed at renamed or deleted profiles and for filaments missing from the selection dialog, so compare those notes with your version rather than assuming a current bug. OrcaSlicer releases
- Note the active printer and nozzle — and the vendor selector only where your version shows one in the filament dialog — then compare them with what the missing preset expects and reopen the list with the matching setup. Changing nozzle size is a separate task with its own checks: how to change nozzle size in OrcaSlicer.
- Unsupported presets are hidden from the preset combo boxes by default; the release notes add that a developer setting can reveal them again.
Cause 2: it was never saved as a user preset
Editing values and saving a named user preset are different actions. Change temperature, flow, or cooling without saving, then switch profiles or restart, and the edits fall away: a saved preset keeps its name after a restart, while an edited session shows modified values with no new entry. Choosing the right base profile is a separate task: 3D filament profiles in OrcaSlicer.
If you find the name, check its values. If there is none, rebuild it deliberately: choose the right printer and nozzle, adjust the values, and save a clearly named user preset such as PLA 0.4 nozzle.
Cause 3: OrcaSlicer may be reading another profile or account folder
A whole collection can disappear from the list when OrcaSlicer reads a different profile folder than the one holding your presets. Inside the configuration folder, user can hold several subfolders: default when you are not signed in to a cloud sync service; a UUID folder created when you sign in to OrcaCloud (2.4 and later); and a 10-digit number folder from the legacy Bambu Cloud sync, no longer supported for profiles from 2.4 onward. OrcaSlicer picks by login state: OrcaCloud means the UUID folder, otherwise default. If you only ever used Bambu Cloud, your presets can still sit in the 10-digit folder while the slicer reads an empty default. Official user profile documentation
Find your configuration folder via Help > Show Configuration Folder. Typical locations:
System | Typical path |
|---|---|
Windows |
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macOS |
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Linux (AppImage or native) |
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Linux (Flatpak) |
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Uninstalling and reinstalling does not delete these folders, so reinstalling is not a recovery step. On macOS the uninstall flow can offer to delete the configuration directory — refuse it.
Back up before any migration, restore, or account change
Every option below changes where OrcaSlicer reads presets, so back up first and leave the source folder untouched until the new setup works.
- Back up now, choosing the method that matches what you are changing:
- With the app still open, use OrcaSlicer's documented export UI to save the relevant presets to a location outside the configuration directory.
- For a configuration-folder backup, quit OrcaSlicer first, then copy the existing configuration folder to a separate safe destination outside the configuration directory.
- In both cases keep the original files in place, and leave a preset that already exists in the destination under the same name with different settings untouched rather than overwriting it. A UI export is brought back in through the UI with the app open again, while file-level restoration follows the documented closed-app guidance for your version.
- Copy only the profile files you need into the destination folder your login state uses, keeping source and destination separate. Do not copy everything over a non-empty destination, and do not overwrite a preset that already exists under the same name with different settings — if you hit that conflict, stop and resolve it deliberately instead of guessing.
- Migration details depend on your printer model, OrcaSlicer version, and account state; follow the documented migration in the official user profile documentation for your version rather than a generic folder swap.
- Do not reuse a preset from an incompatible printer. If a profile came from a download, take it from the vendor's bundle or the built-in Orca Filament Library, not a random download site.
- A
.3mfproject saved with the missing preset can show which values it used, but it is not an automatically safe profile source: open it without accepting or replacing your current profiles, and confirm printer, nozzle, and material compatibility before you rebuild or apply anything from it. - Changing JSON identifiers by hand or downgrading OrcaSlicer is not part of the documented recovery path; treat either as a last resort only if official support directs you to it.
Completion check and stop conditions
You are done when the preset appears with your intended printer and nozzle selected, survives a full restart, and lives in the folder matching your login state. Back up that folder again.
Stop and ask for help rather than deleting or moving more when the preset vanishes after every restart, when your whole collection is affected rather than one entry, or when the configuration folder cannot be opened. Issue #12452 is one user's report of the second case: closing and reopening OrcaSlicer 2.3.2 beta2 on Windows left every filament profile gone except one entry marked unsupported; it happened once with no reliable reproduction — a symptom report, not proof of a current bug. Issue #12452
Keep your backup, collect the debug logs and version number, and report through the project's issue tracker instead of reinstalling repeatedly; include printer, nozzle, account state, and folder contents. If the checks above do not restore your presets, consult the official community support channels for your version before changing anything else.
