My templates and printer settings disappeared
A duplicate computer in your station list and templates back to their defaults, usually after clearing browser data. Nothing is lost — here is how to get it back.
You open the app and your print templates are back to the shared defaults, your printer calibration is gone, and there is an extra computer in your list of print stations that you do not recognise.
Nothing has been deleted.
What happened
Your computer's identity as a print station is a hidden ID stored in your browser — not your computer's name. Clearing cache and site data deletes it. The next time you open the app a new ID is created, so the app sees a machine it has never met.
Your old profile, and everything attached to it, is still on our servers under the old ID.
The same thing happens if you:
- switch to a different browser
- use a private or incognito window
- use a different Windows or Mac user account
- sign in on a different computer
Each of those is a separate profile as far as the app is concerned. That is deliberate — computer names are neither unique nor permanent, so identity cannot be based on them.
Getting your settings back
- Go to Settings → Print.
- Find the This computer card.
- Open the picker of existing stations. Your old entry is there, under your computer’s real name. Entries holding saved templates are badged.
- Select it and adopt it.
Your computer takes back the old identity, along with its templates and their Global or Local settings.
If you re-enter your calibration and templates onto the new profile first, you will then have two half-configured entries. Adopt the old one first.
Tidying up afterwards
Once you have adopted your old station, the empty profile the browser created can be removed from the same list. Each station record counts against your plan’s allowance for computers keeping local templates, so it is worth clearing out.
Avoiding it
If you clear browser data regularly — some privacy settings do it on every close — consider keeping your print templates on Global scope instead of Local. Global templates live on your store record and are unaffected by anything that happens to a browser.
The trade-off is that every computer then shares one template per document. For most shops that is what they wanted anyway.
What is not affected
Anything store-wide survives untouched: your delivery date format, PrintNode key and printer assignments, integrations mapping, drivers, portal address and branding, and your Global templates. See which settings apply where.
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