Description

glvjr

opened on Feb 15, 2026

Issue body actions

Most appropriate sub-area of Processing 4?

PDE

Processing version

Processing 4.5.2 portable version (processing-4.5.2-windows-x64-portable.zip)

Operating system

Windows 10

Bug description

When a custom location for preferences.txt is defined in settings.txt:

1. Processing creates a preferences.txt in that directory but does not write to (update) that file.
2. Preference changes are written to the default preferences directory instead and are not used.
3. Processing will use the custom preferences.txt if it is manually edited.

Processing should write to (update) the configured custom preferences.txt location.

This works as expected in Processing 4.4.x

Steps to reproduce this

This is a custom environment on my system.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Unzip processing-4.5.2-windows-x64-portable.zip into:
   D:\Program_Portable\
   This creates: D:\Program_Portable\Processing\
2. Create this folder (must be created manually):
   D:\Program_Portable\Processing\mypreferences\
3. Create this file:
   D:\Program_Portable\Processing\app\resources\lib\settings.txt
4. Put this single line into settings.txt:
   settings.path=D:\Program_Portable\Processing\mypreferences
5. Launch Processing.
6. Confirm it creates:
   D:\Program_Portable\Processing\mypreferences\preferences.txt
7. Change any preference in the UI (example: Editor font size and Console font size).
8. Close Processing.
9. Check which file actually changed:
   • D:\Program_Portable\Processing\mypreferences\preferences.txt
   • %APPDATA%\Processing\preferences.txt

Actual result:

• Processing creates D:\Program_Portable\Processing\mypreferences\preferences.txt
• Processing does not write preference changes to it.
• Preference changes are written to %APPDATA%\Processing\preferences.txt instead.

Expected result:

• Processing should read/write preferences using the folder specified by settings.path.
• You should see the Editor font size change in real time when modifying it with the scrollbar

Reference:

1. https://discourse.processing.org/t/custom-location-for-preferences-txt-not-working-with-processing-4-5-2/47872
2. https://github.com/processing/processing4/wiki/Preferences#sketchbook-and-settings-location
3. https://github.com/processing/processing4/releases

Additional context

See Processing Discourse for additional context:

https://discourse.processing.org/t/custom-location-for-preferences-txt-not-working-with-processing-4-5-2/47872

Would you like to work on the issue?

No, I’m just reporting the issue

Activity

1. glvjr

   added

   bugSomething isn't workingSomething isn't working

   on Feb 15, 2026
2. avinxshKD commented on Feb 16, 2026

   

   avinxshKD

   on Feb 16, 2026

   Contributor

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   I'd like to work on this, pls assign
3. SableRaf commented on Feb 16, 2026

   

   SableRaf

   on Feb 16, 2026

   Collaborator

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   @avinxshKD Hey, thanks for wanting to help out again

   Just a heads-up: as we discussed on #1433, commenting "please assign" without a proposed approach or investigation into the issue goes against our contribution guidelines which ask that you include a brief explanation of how you'd tackle the problem before requesting assignment.

   I totally understand college keeps you busy. Just know that consistently skipping the process creates extra work for maintainers and isn't fair to other contributors either. Quality over quantity 😉

   If you're interested in this issue, a great next step would be try reproducing the issue, dig into the codebase for the cause of the bug, and share your findings and proposed fix here. That kind of contribution is always welcome!
4. avinxshKD commented on Feb 16, 2026

   

   avinxshKD

   on Feb 16, 2026

   Contributor

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   Hey @SableRaf, you're absolutely right and I apologize. I got caught up in the excitement of wanting to contribute and skipped the actual work. And yeah college has been hectic but that's no excuse for skipping the process. That's on me, so sorry

   i looked into it and yeah it's broken. the new kotlin preferences code (Preferences.kt line 84) just calls Settings.getFolder() directly instead of checking if theres a settings override first. the old java version used to check Base.getSettingsOverride() before grabbing the default folder. so settings.txt gets read on startup but then preferences get saved to appdata anyway

   fix should be pretty simple - justn check the override first:

   val settingsFolder = Base.getSettingsOverride() ?: Settings.getFolder()

   can test it with the steps from the issue report if you want me to make a pr. will do the homework first next time, thanks

   Reacted by Raphaël de Courville
5. SableRaf

   assigned

   avinxshKD

   on Feb 16, 2026
6. SableRaf commented on Feb 17, 2026

   

   SableRaf

   on Feb 17, 2026

   Collaborator

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   @avinxshKD I have assigned you. I'll let @catilac comment on the proposed technical solution and next steps as this is outside of my area of competence 😌
7. catilac commented on Feb 17, 2026

   

   catilac

   on Feb 17, 2026

   Collaborator

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   amazing thank you @SableRaf and @avinxshKD :) i'll be taking a look at the PR
8. avinxshKD commented on Feb 18, 2026

   

   avinxshKD

   on Feb 18, 2026

   Contributor

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   amazing thank you @SableRaf and @avinxshKD :) i'll be taking a look at the PR

   hey super thanks, pr is ready you can review and
   let me know if any adjustments needed, happy to
9. catilac

   closed this as completedin #1439on Feb 19, 2026

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