Can I move my AppData folder in Windows 10?

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7

I have 3 Drives, Boot(C:), Data(D:) and Restore(E:) My C: , which has 116 GB is full, and most of it is in my Appdata\Local (50GB) My D: has 377GB Free Space and I wanted to Know if it is safe to move the AppDta folder to it.

I did this with the Appdata\roaming yesterday and it did not work but after a restart it was back to normal and this time I searched for it on google and made a User\username\AppData folder in my D: drive and went to the properties of Local and manually moved it to the new folder like the search told me and after opening the Local\ElevatedDiagnostics Folder which had admin rights it was possible for me and it is copying everything right now

Will this work? and if not, will it be easy to return back to the previous state like with the roaming folder?

DOGE

Posted 2017-09-14T12:47:11.173

Reputation: 101

Answers

14

Just moving the folder is not enough.

Once you have moved it, you must replace the original with a symbolic link to the new location. This will make windows think the data is still located on your C drive, while it actually is on your D drive.

Do note, this does work with AppData, but not with Program Files nor with the Windows folder, as it will break things like Windows Update.

To create the Directory Junction (Symbolic Link) do the following:

  1. Open a cmd window with administrative privileges.
  2. Navigate to c:\Users\username\appdata
  3. execute the following command: mklink /d local d:\appdata\local
    replace d:\appdata\local with the actual path of where you moved the appdata to.

If you cannot move/delete the original copy, create a 2nd user, make it administrator, login with it, and retry the option. This should ensure that no files are in use.

LPChip

Posted 2017-09-14T12:47:11.173

Reputation: 42 190

Works for the whole user directory too. – Chema – 2018-05-24T23:10:32.210

@Chema it does, but you have to be very careful to not change any of the folder permissions, otherwise a user won't be able to load their profile anymore. – LPChip – 2018-05-25T07:28:58.027

A bit late (I always hold on updates for a few weeks, to prevent stuff like this), but Windows 10 October's update nuked many Documents folders using this trick. If it happens to you, I hope you've got a fresh backup! (if not, stop using that PC until you get a copy of Recuva).
https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/10/09/updated-version-of-windows-10-october-2018-update-released-to-windows-insiders/ «We have fully investigated all reports of data loss, identified and fixed all known issues in the update, and conducted internal validation.» Chea rite!

– Chema – 2018-11-09T20:19:27.967

@Chema it will only happen if you also use OneDrive. The bug here is that if you use OneDrive, but not updated to the latest version before upgrading, only then will you lose your files. If you don't use OneDrive or you have the latest version, then there's not a problem. That said, Microsoft has pulled the update quite a while ago, so upgrading at this point is not even possible. – LPChip – 2018-11-09T20:23:17.030

Two issues are related to OneDrive, but not the first one listed: «Using KFR the user redirected a known folder to a different drive.» KFR is the "official" way to move Documents. I thought I was using symlinks, but now I suspect I ran into problems symlinking the user directory and probably used KFR instead... I'm no longer sure... never are, with Winbugs Updates! – Chema – 2018-11-09T20:44:25.783

I managed to "redirect" the whole {user} folder to d: which is great. But ran into problem where the Start button doesn't work (blank when I click on it). FRIENDLY reminder to set the SECURITY of the new folder to allow the user to access it!! – Joseph Lee – 2019-07-21T07:41:03.923

FYI, a junction is a mount point, not a symlink. The I/O manager implements junctions as hard name graftings. When parsing a path in an open/create context, a junction's security is evaluated, and a relative symlink that traverses it as an ancestor via ".." components handles it as a regular directory. OTOH, in an open/create context, the system does not evaluate the security of a symlink, and a relative symlink will traverse the target of an ancestor symlink rather than the symlink itself. mklink /d creates a symlink. mklink /j creates a junction. – Eryk Sun – 2019-08-29T16:11:37.120

@ErykSun I'm a bit confused. So, in short, should I do mklink /d or mklink /j in this case? – Henrik – 2019-12-30T16:21:57.750

1@Henrik, I'd use a junction, which basically acts like what's called a "bind" mount point in Unix. The practical difference is when they're traversed while reparsing relative symlinks that have ".." components. A junction mount point behaves more like a cross-filesystem hardlink in that case, so its ".." parent directory is always the literal parent from the path as parsed, whereas a symlink resolves to the target in this case, so its ".." parent directory will be different from the parent in the parsed path. So overall a "Local" junction behaves more like a regular directory. – Eryk Sun – 2019-12-30T22:14:04.860

0

AppData folder has three folders inside and each can be moved separately.

Right click -> Properties -> Location.

Taken from here

Ohad Cohen

Posted 2017-09-14T12:47:11.173

Reputation: 239

The symlink way is easier, but this works if you first copy the folders using another account, so when you do this you don't have to move them (and run into files in use problems). – Chema – 2018-05-24T23:10:01.757

Asked: 2017-09-14T12:47:11.173

Viewed: 57 458 times

Active: 2019-05-18T06:40:34.547