How to install XMP presets in Lightroom Mobile

For years, importing a preset on an iPhone meant a DNG file, a fake photo in your library and a "Create Preset" dance. Adobe added native preset import to Lightroom on iOS in mid-2024; Android had it earlier. If a tutorial tells you to import a DNG, it was written before that and you can ignore it.

Importing an .xmp preset on iPhone and iPad

1. Get the .xmp file onto the device. Save it into the Files app — iCloud Drive, On My iPhone, Dropbox or Google Drive all work. A .zip of several presets is also accepted.
2. Open Lightroom and open any photo into the editor. Preset import lives inside the editing UI, not in the app-level settings.
3. Tap Presets in the bottom toolbar.
4. Tap the ⋯ (three-dot) menu at the top right of the Presets panel.
5. Tap Import Presets.
6. Navigate to the .xmp or .zip in the Files browser and select it.
7. The preset lands in the Yours tab, inside whatever group name is embedded in the file — often "User Presets".

Importing an .xmp preset on Android

The path is the same: open a photo, tap Presets, tap the ⋯ menu, tap Import Presets, then pick the file through the system file picker. Android will usually surface Downloads first; if you saved to Google Drive, open the picker's side menu and switch source.

The other route: let them sync from the desktop

If you already use Lightroom desktop (the cloud one, not Classic) with the same Adobe ID, importing there is easier and the presets arrive on the phone by themselves. In Lightroom desktop choose File → Import Profiles & Presets…, point it at a folder, individual files or a zip, and click Import. They sync to the cloud and appear on mobile within a minute or two.

Lightroom Classic does not sync presets to mobile. Classic and the cloud ecosystem keep separate preset stores. If you built a preset in Classic and want it on your phone, export it from Classic and import the .xmp on the phone directly, or import it into Lightroom desktop first.

My preset imported but it is not in the list

• Check the Yours tab. The Presets panel now mixes Adobe's own Premium and Adaptive presets with yours. Tap the group dropdown at the top of the panel and switch to Yours.
• Turn on partially compatible presets. In the ⋯ menu there is a Show Partially Compatible Presets toggle. A preset that references settings mobile cannot apply — some Detail options, certain masking behaviour — is hidden until you switch this on.
• It may be an Adaptive preset. Presets in the Adaptive: Portrait / Sky / Subject families are not plain slider lists; they invoke AI masking. They cannot be shipped as a third-party .xmp and will not import.
• It may be a `.lrtemplate`. That is the pre-2018 format. Lightroom desktop will convert it on import; mobile will not. Convert it on a desktop first.
• Check the file is really XMP. Open it in a text editor. A Lightroom preset starts with <x:xmpmeta and contains a crs: namespace. If you see binary noise or Lua source, it is not an XMP preset.

Applying and managing them

Tap a preset once to preview it on the open photo, then tap the checkmark to commit. The Amount slider that appears above the preset list dials the whole preset up or down, which is the single most useful control in mobile Lightroom and the thing that makes bought preset packs survivable — most of them are built two notches too strong.

To delete or rename, long-press the preset in the Yours tab, or use Manage Presets in the ⋯ menu to hide entire groups from the list without deleting them.

Why PresetForge exports .xmp and not DNG

A so-called "DNG preset" is not a preset file at all. It is a real DNG image — usually a tiny, deliberately ugly one — that happens to carry Develop settings in its metadata, and the "install" is you copying those settings off it. It existed purely because mobile Lightroom had no other import path. Now that it does, shipping a DNG would mean shipping a worse file that takes more steps to use.

So PresetForge writes .xmp — the same format Lightroom Classic writes itself, structured the same way, with no conversion step on import — plus .cube if you want the same grade in video, and .json if you want the raw measured numbers. That is the whole export list, and each entry earns its place.