For a temporary fix, you can select "all" and then make it as a bookmark. That way, everytime you will have the desired setting.

Happens to me too, my account setting is All but that doesn't stick when I go to lemmy.world homepage.

By default Lemmy shows local when first opened. I don't know who thought that would be a good idea but you can change it in your profile settings. You might have to use desktop or a mobile browser instead of an app.

have you tried changing the "type" option in lemmy.world/settings/ (or [yourinstance]/settings)?

I am on lemmynsfw and for me it sticks to the subscribed tab.

I'm really new here and don't quite understand the difference between local and all, could someone possbily explain?

its whatever the default for you instance is set to, starts with local, i changed mine to all. users can override.

Same here. Also can't get New to stick.