Reset Teamcenter user preferences without losing the diagnosis.

Recovered from our 2024 technical notes and reviewed against the documentation on 5 November 2026. The commands have not been rerun in Teamcenter for this revision. Check the installed version before use.

Historical environment: Teamcenter 14.1.0.9 on Windows Server 2019. Reference: Teamcenter 14.1 Utilities Reference, preferences_manager. Clearing USER instances does not delete preference definitions; inherited group, role or site values can become effective.

Export before changing anything

Replace ADMIN_USER and TARGET_USER. Use a protected Teamcenter password file provisioned according to your installation, not a password pasted into the command. Retain the export and identify the specific preference causing the symptom.

preferences_manager -u=ADMIN_USER -pf="C:\secure\tc-admin.pwf" -g=dba -mode=export -scope=USER -target=TARGET_USER -out_file="C:\work\user-preferences-before.xml"

Remove one override, or clear the whole scope?

Prefer -mode=remove with -preferences=PREFERENCE_NAME when one override is the cause. Use the broader -mode=clear only when a complete user-scope reset is intended. Both commands below change data; they are alternatives, not a sequence to run together.

preferences_manager -u=ADMIN_USER -pf="C:\secure\tc-admin.pwf" -g=dba -mode=remove -scope=USER -target=TARGET_USER -preferences=PREFERENCE_NAME

preferences_manager -u=ADMIN_USER -pf="C:\secure\tc-admin.pwf" -g=dba -mode=clear -scope=USER -target=TARGET_USER

Verify the result

Start a fresh user session and repeat the original action. Compare the effective preference value and confirm an unrelated user is unchanged. If recovery is needed, review the export/import options for the same scope and test the restore before using it in production.