Where Does OpenShot Store Settings and Recovery Files?
OpenShot keeps settings, thumbnails and autosaved crash backups in a .openshot_qt folder in home. Paths and recovery for every OS.
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OpenShot stores almost nothing next to your video files. Settings, thumbnails, title templates and working files all live in a single .openshot_qt folder directly in your home directory, on every OS. Your actual .osp project files live wherever you saved them, which is a separate thing people mix up constantly.
The subfolder that matters most is recovery. OpenShot autosaves there every three minutes by default, so a crash usually costs minutes, not hours. When OpenShot misbehaves on startup, deleting openshot.settings resets preferences while leaving recovery intact, which is the gentlest fix to try first.
Where OpenShot stores this, by platform
%USERPROFILE%\.openshot_qt
Settings file openshot.settings plus recovery, thumbnail, title and preset subfolders. Deleting openshot.settings resets preferences; deleting the whole folder is the clean reinstall. Back up recovery first; it holds autosaved .osp copies of unsaved work.
~/.openshot_qt
Same layout as Windows, rooted in home. Use Go, Go to Folder in Finder and paste the path, since dotfolders are hidden. The recovery subfolder is where crashed projects wait; open the newest matching .osp and Save As.
~/.openshot_qt
Same dotfolder layout as the other platforms. Autosave interval and history depth are tunable in Preferences under the Autosave section. Starting a new project clears the temporary working folders but never touches saved projects or recovery.
Frequently asked questions
how do i recover an openshot project after a crash
Open the recovery subfolder inside .openshot_qt and look for the most recent .osp file matching your project name. Double-click it to open in OpenShot, then Save As to a proper location. Autosave runs every few minutes by default, so the worst case is usually a few minutes of lost edits.
how do i reset openshot settings to default
Delete openshot.settings inside .openshot_qt and relaunch. OpenShot recreates it with defaults. If the app will not start at all, delete the whole .openshot_qt folder instead, but back up the recovery subfolder first since it holds your autosaved projects.
how do i fully uninstall openshot
Manually delete the .openshot_qt folder: ~/.openshot_qt on Linux and Mac, or C:\Users\[You]\.openshot_qt on Windows. Uninstallers leave it behind on purpose. Rescue any .osp files from recovery first, since they are your only copies of unsaved work.
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