Problem Saving Maya Preferences
Posted by markAug 8
I just came across this little Maya oddity and solution. I thought I would share it.
When you first launch Maya, you see the following message in the feedback box at the bottom of your workspace…
Error: Warning: Not all preferences were saved. See Script Editor for details.
Description of problem:
Maya doesn’t retain any changes you have made to your workspace, such as which shelf you last had open, which panel set you were last using, or any other customizations to the interface in general.
Solution (Windows XP Pro, SP 2):
UPDATE: This works for WIndow 7 environments too (thanks to luka3rd for confirming this)
Create a System Variable called MAYA_APP_DIR and enter the path to the maya folder as it is in your “My Documents” target folder.
Here’s how:

1.Right click on ‘My Computer’ and choose ‘Properties’
2. Select the ‘Advanced’ tab, and click on ‘Environment Varibales’

3. Under ‘System Variables’ click on ‘New’ and name it: MAYA_APP_DIR. Set the value to the location you wish to use, e.g. D:/maya

4. Click OK until all dialogs are closed.
5. Restart Maya if you have it open.
Why does this happen?
If you change the target folder for your “My Documents” folder to something different since you installed Maya, this problem will occur.


6 comments
Comment by Michaeljxy on March 15, 2009 at 11:09 pm
i love u dude!!!!
googled so many website and find the most specific solution here!!
thought it seems still not sovled… but i’ll reboot my computer and check agagin. Thanks~!
Comment by Michaeljxy on March 15, 2009 at 11:32 pm
wooh~! it works~!!! thanks!
Comment by mark on March 16, 2009 at 9:11 am
I’m glad this helped. I went through the same thing a while back. I found many sites that stated the solution to this problem, but all of them were to vague so decided to make my own example, but with images. I’m a visual thinker, so I prefer to use actual images instead of just words.
Comment by Michaeljxy on March 16, 2009 at 10:47 pm
yeah~, i like visual thinker~! i’ve just started my cg career and hope learn more from you guys~! thank you!
Comment by luka3rd on September 7, 2010 at 4:08 am
Bravo! This is the only short and simple solution to the problem I found on web. This even works on Windows 7!
Perfect solution.
Thank you so much.
Comment by mark on September 7, 2010 at 9:08 am
You’re welcome luka3rd. Glad to hear it works on Win7 also. I’ll update this post to mention this.
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