Change engine install location?

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

Hi.

Does anyone know how to choose where the engine is installed?
My Epic Game Launcher is on C drive but i want the engine to install elsewhere.

I have run out of space on my C drive and this new build states it requires 18gb to install.
Something i think is overkill but hey, i dont write the software.

Anycase… how can i go about installing the engine on another drive without having to redownload everything?

2

Hi ,
At this point in time, there is no way to choose where to install the engine *within the launcher. * You can however install the launcher itself to another drive and the engine installs will go to that selected drive in the “Epic Games” folder. The reason for the 18GB of space is for engine download/updates since the engines are installed in the same location as the launcher.

3

Hi.

Thank you for the feedback.
Is it possible to copy the already downloaded engines to the correct folders?

Basically i want to uninstall the launcher then and reinstall it. But transfer the engine downloads. As im still waiting for the telecoms company to install my proper line and right now downloads are a painful 80kb/s
I don’t mind uninstalling and reinstalling. Just hoping i can transfer said engines to the launcher folder.

Will experiment with doing it in the meantime and give feedback incase i beat you to it.

Thank you.

4

In theory, yes.
It may go through a verify process with all of the copied engines but it should not go through the whole entire download process.

5

Hi.

I eventually did this. Unfortunately it could only follow the verify process for the already installed engines.
For engines downloaded but not installed it refused to accept the $resumedata file and insisted on downloading from scratch. I even tried pausing the download and copying over the already downloaded engines.

Still… its done now and i should have the new engine downloaded by tomorrow. Atleast i don’t have to stress about drive space anymore.

Thank you.

6

I’d like to bump this thread, as my use case doesn’t allow install of anything by generic users in non-“My Documents” locations.

1 Like
7

You could allways copy the directory from my document and move it to your desired location and then use a symbolic link to link the new location to your “my documents” directory

8

OK GUYS EVERYBODY LOOK HERE

Install Epic Games Launcher in wanted drive (D: if your C: is full) (I think it isn’t necessary)

Open Epic Games Launcher click on gear icon at upper right corner left from minimize THAN
in pop up window CLICK ON Edit Vault Cache Location AND ALMOST DONE in next pop up window
JUST CLICK Reset and Apply or (change C: to wanted drive in this case D: ) AND that’s it.

9

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but changing the Launcher location doesn’t change the engine location :<

10

On win 10 you can select where you want to install apps change this and you can install UE on any drive you want I just did this. Go to all settings then system then storage. You can change there.

11

I have been trying to download Unreal 4, but I keep getting the message: “Directory must be empty.” May someone tell me what that means?

12

I can see that people still have problem with this so I am gonna post my fake solution for this problem. Just copy your current UE directory to UE-temporary (some folder to hold your files in other than current UE folder). In launcher, uninstall UE. When it is finished, install it again and pick directory to your liking. When launcher is done initializing (download has started) pause it. Moove files from UE-temporary to the new directory which you picked for new UE installation. In launcher, click resume. It will start verifying first, so your previous UE files will be verified and only the necessary (missing or corrupted) files will be (re)downloaded.

2 Likes
13

hi i am web designer it is possible to change the location just click install and browse and select the folder that you want

14

Thanks for the advice - these steps worked for me after changing a drive letter:

  1. Rename your existing Unreal Engine directory to something like UE_4.26-Temp
  2. Start a new Install of Unreal Engine via the Epic Games Launcher
  3. Pause the installation once the new download has started
  4. Move all the files from within the Temporary folder to the newly created installation directory - you can simply skip any files that show a permissions error (because the directory is ‘currently in use’)
  5. Then simply resume the download in the Epic Games Launcher and it will begin verifying all the files
15

Hi Friends

I need old UE4.24.3 to install at first I looking for button to changing installation folder ! after that I looking for the way to change the location tips!

But I didn’t know when the pressing install button a window will pop up that asking a directory location !

  • So just play the install button and change the location of installation! *

Good luck

16

Move UE4 to a new location.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EpicGames\Unreal Engine\4.27]
"InstalledDirectory"="D:\\UE4\\UE_4.27"

Edit, Save this as .reg and merge to registry.

Then open:

C:\ProgramData\Epic\UnrealEngineLauncher\LauncherInstalled.dat

Edit path that matches your moved build:

		{
			"InstallLocation": "D:\\UE4\\UE_4.27",
			"NamespaceId": "ue",
			"ItemId": "fbc8f00a16b9411989ae12a00060ff34",
			"ArtifactId": "UE_4.27",
			"AppVersion": "4.27.0-16565192+++UE4+Release-4.27-Windows",
			"AppName": "UE_4.27"
		}

It will work even if you have only those rows:

		{
			"InstallLocation": "D:\\UE4\\UE_4.27",
			"NamespaceId": "ue",
			"AppName": "UE_4.27"
		}
3 Likes
17

this should not be so cryptic

18

except it does not least unreal in the program list

19

A few years later …

Now, when you click on the install button, a popup asks for your alternate location.

20

You’re a life and time saver <3