docs/settings.rst
There are many configuration settings that can be used to customize the
interface. Those settings are described in
:ref:config. There are several layers of the configuration.
The global settings can be configured in :file:config.inc.php as described in
:ref:config. This is only way to configure connections to databases and other
system wide settings.
On top of this there are user settings which can be persistently stored in
:ref:linked-tables, possibly automatically configured through
:ref:zeroconf. If the :ref:linked-tables are not configured, the settings
are temporarily stored in the session data; these are valid only until you
logout.
You can also save the user configuration for further use, either download them
as a file or to the browser local storage. You can find both those options in
the :guilabel:Settings tab. The settings stored in browser local storage will
be automatically offered for loading upon your login to phpMyAdmin.