Since Audacity already integrates with Audio.com for cloud project storage, could Audacity also provide an optional cloud backup/sync feature for user presets and configuration?
This would address a problem that already comes up repeatedly in the Audacity community: users can lose Effect User Presets after an upgrade, reinstall, computer replacement, or migration to another machine, and the usual advice is to manually locate and back up pluginsettings.cfg.
That file may be tiny, but it can represent a considerable amount of work—custom EQ curves, compression settings, reverb presets, and other carefully developed Effect User Presets.
It would be useful to have an optional “Back up/sync Audacity settings and User Presets” feature associated with the user’s Audio.com account.
Ideally, Audacity could distinguish between:
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Account-level data: Effect User Presets, custom EQ settings, and other user-created settings that could safely follow the user between installations.
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Device-specific data: Audio interfaces, input/output devices, ASIO settings, directories, latency settings, plug-in registry information, and other hardware-dependent configuration that should remain local to each computer.
The storage requirement would be negligible compared with cloud project storage, yet it would protect settings that may have taken users years to develop.
Even if full synchronization introduces too many complications, a simple Back Up Settings to Audio.com / Restore Settings from Audio.com function would solve most of the problem while avoiding conflicts between different computers.
Since users are already being advised to manually back up pluginsettings.cfg, this would essentially automate an existing recommended practice and make it much less likely that valuable presets are lost.