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Settings import & export

OctoEdit can save your whole configuration to a single portable file, bring it back on another machine, and reset itself to factory defaults. All three actions sit at the bottom-left of Edit ▸ Preferences: Export Settings…, Import Settings… and Restore Defaults….

The settings file

An exported file uses the .octosettings extension (readable JSON inside). It contains your configuration:

  • every core setting (editor, view toggles, syntax, completion, backup, file watching, …),
  • every plugin's settings, and which plugins are enabled or disabled,
  • your keyboard-shortcut overrides.

Machine-specific values never travel — in either direction. They are left out of an export, and ignored if a file contains them anyway:

  • window size and dock layout, and the Preferences window's own size;
  • the recent-file and recent-command lists, and the previous session (which documents were open, in which pane, and which one was active);
  • anything that names a location on this machine: language-server executables, the PHP binary and its document root, the backup folder, the last opened workspace folder, and the AI agent program paths;
  • which files had their Markdown or HTML preview open (that list is made of paths on this machine);
  • the crash-recovery bookkeeping (how many times the editor crashed in a row, and which plugin set last started cleanly);
  • the window rendering mode — whether GPU composition works is a property of the machine, not of your configuration;
  • diagnostic flags.

Excluding the language-server paths matters in particular: an explicitly configured path is authoritative, so a Windows path imported on a Mac would silently switch that language server off rather than fall back to searching for it. Licensing state is never part of the file, so importing someone else's settings cannot affect your license — and your documents are never included either.

Export

Export Settings… asks where to save the file and writes it. Nothing else changes — exporting is always safe.

Import

Import Settings… asks for a file, shows what is about to happen and then overwrites the matching settings with the file's values. Settings the file does not mention keep their current values. Files written by a newer OctoEdit still import — whatever this version understands is applied.

Because components read their configuration at startup, OctoEdit then offers to restart: Restart Now closes the editor the normal way (save prompts included) and starts it again; Later keeps it running — the imported values take full effect on the next start.

Restore Defaults

Restore Defaults… returns every OctoEdit setting — including plugin settings and keyboard shortcuts — to its default value. Before doing so it offers Export Settings First…, a one-click backup of the current state (cancelling that backup cancels the reset). Your files, sessions and license are not affected. The reset also ends with the restart offer above.