The system most traders miss. Templates save chart-by-chart setups; profiles save your entire workspace. Together they save dozens of hours of repeated configuration.
.tpl and live in MT5's Profiles/Default/Templates folder.Two related concepts that traders often confuse.
| Templates | Profiles |
|---|---|
| Save the look of one chart | Save the entire MT5 workspace |
Stored in Templates/ folder |
Stored in Profiles/ folder |
| Applied to any single chart | Loaded as the full workspace |
| Contains: indicators, drawings, colours, scale, timeframe | Contains: which charts are open, their positions, and which template each uses |
| Many templates can exist; you switch per chart | One profile is active at a time |
xau_scalp_m5 or eur_swing_h1.The template file xau_scalp_m5.tpl appears in the templates folder.
The chart instantly inherits all indicators, drawings, colours, and the original timeframe.
If you save a template with the name default, every new chart you open in MT5 will use it as the starting template. This is the secret to a fast workflow: build a default with your standard indicator stack and colour scheme, and never click through the indicator menu again.
Open the MT5 data folder via File > Open Data Folder. Inside, the path is:
MQL5/Profiles/Templates/Each .tpl file is an XML-formatted text file. You can edit it directly with a text editor if you want to tweak indicator parameters without going through the GUI. But this is rarely needed.
Backup tip: zip the entire Templates folder periodically. If you reinstall MT5 or move to a new machine, restoring this folder gives you back every template instantly.
A profile captures everything about your MT5 window at the moment of save:
Click File menu then Profiles then Save As. Name it descriptively. Example: morning_asia, london_open, news_day.
Click File menu then Profiles then choose the saved profile name. MT5 closes all current charts and rebuilds the saved workspace. Takes about 2 seconds.
For 22:00 to 07:00 UTC trading. Open charts:
Each chart uses an Asia-session template emphasising range-trading indicators.
For 07:00 to 12:00 UTC trading. Open charts:
Each chart uses a London-template with breakout indicators.
For NFP, FOMC, CPI days. Open charts:
Switching between these profiles takes 2 seconds. Trying to recreate any one of them from scratch takes 5 to 10 minutes.
The system is hierarchical. A profile remembers which template each chart uses. So if you update a template later, every profile that references that template gets the update next time it loads.
Example: you add a new indicator to your xau_scalp_m5 template. Next time you load the london_open profile, the XAU chart in that profile will have the new indicator. You did not need to edit the profile separately.
Find the .tpl file in MQL5/Profiles/Templates/ and send it to another trader. They drop it into their templates folder and load it from the Template menu.
Profiles are folders, not files. The folder MQL5/Profiles/Charts/your_profile_name/ contains the entire profile. Zip the folder, send it, the recipient unzips it to the same location in their MT5 data directory.
Important: shared profiles work only if the recipient's MT5 has the same symbols available with the same names. If your profile references XAUUSD.r (with a broker-specific suffix) and the recipient's broker uses just XAUUSD, charts will fail to open.
One profile per major session: asia, london, newyork, overlap. Switch profiles when sessions change.
One profile per strategy: swing, scalp, news. Each profile has only the symbols and timeframes that strategy uses.
One profile per group: majors, metals, indices, crypto. Useful if you trade across asset classes.
If you trade multiple broker accounts, profiles by broker keep your workflows separate. Note: each broker has its own MT5 install, so profiles are per-install anyway.
Yes, but the GUI gets unwieldy. In practice, 8 to 15 templates is the sweet spot for most traders.
Only if you back up and restore the MQL5/Profiles/Templates/ folder. The installer wipes the profiles folder by default.
No. Profiles save workspace layout only. Account credentials are stored separately and persist across profiles.
Not from inside MT5. You would close MT5, rename the folder in MQL5/Profiles/Charts/, and reopen MT5.