Where Does Krita Store Brushes?
Krita resources and settings paths on Windows, macOS and Linux, and how to reset a broken setup without losing brushes.
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Krita splits setup across two folders. Paint resources like brushes, gradients, palettes and patterns live in a share/krita tree. Settings and window layout live in a small kritarc file plus a krita subfolder beside it.
That split makes repairs safe. Rename the settings files to reset the UI while leaving brushes untouched. Manage bundles from Settings > Manage Resources, which opens the live folder for you. Back up both trees before major version upgrades. Workspace layouts export separately as .kws files for sharing.
Where Krita stores this, by platform
%appdata%\krita
Resources sit in subfolders here and settings in %appdata%\krita\kritarc nearby. Older builds also used %localappdata%\krita, so check there if brushes look missing.
~/Library/Application Support/krita
Settings file kritarc sits beside it in Application Support. Use Go > Go to Folder in Finder. Bundle imports land in the paintoppresets subfolder.
~/.local/share/krita
Settings live at ~/.config/kritarc with extra state in ~/.config/krita. AppImage builds respect XDG paths the same way, so this holds across installs.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I put downloaded Krita brush bundles?
Drop .bundle files into the paintoppresets resources folder, or import through Settings > Manage Resources > Import. Restart Krita and the brushes appear in the picker with their tags.
How do I reset Krita without losing brushes?
Close Krita, rename kritarc to kritarc.bak, and relaunch. The UI resets while the resources folder stays intact. Delete the backup only after confirming the fix.
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