Where Does Cinema 4D Store Preferences?
Cinema 4D keeps layouts, shortcuts, and assets in versioned Maxon prefs folders, with .c4d scenes saved separately.
Last updated
Cinema 4D preferences live in a versioned Maxon folder with a random suffix, which is why old forum paths never match exactly. Layouts, shortcuts, scripts, the Asset Browser repository, and the prefs file all sit inside. Your .c4d scenes live wherever you saved them.
Fastest way in is Edit then Preferences then Open Preferences Folder. That opens the exact version folder for the running build. Close the app before deleting or migrating anything, and keep third party plugins out of the main install folder when testing crashes.
Where Cinema 4D stores this, by platform
C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Maxon\Maxon Cinema 4D [version]
Shortcuts in prefs\shortcuts, layouts in library\layout, assets in userrepository. Asset cache sits beside it in Maxon_assetcache. Suffix letters mark Team Render or Cineware variants.
~/Library/Preferences/Maxon/Maxon Cinema 4D [version]
Same interior layout as Windows. Open it from inside Preferences to avoid guessing the suffix. Copy the whole version folder when moving machines, then relink custom plugin paths.
Frequently asked questions
How do I reset Cinema 4D preferences safely?
Close the app, rename the Maxon version folder to Maxon_old, and relaunch to rebuild defaults. Return subfolders like library or prefs one at a time to isolate the culprit.
Where are Cinema 4D Asset Browser files stored?
In userrepository inside the version prefs folder, with downloads cached in Maxon_assetcache beside it. Copy both trees to migrate downloaded assets without redownloading.
Notice an outdated path? Let us know.