How can I change default location of \Unreal Projects?

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I installed UnrealEngine to my big secondary drive (“N:\UnrealEngine”), but when Launching sample file, it filled my boot/system drive with temp files and now I have zero space on C:\ compile didn’t launch because it ran out of room to finish, and now I can’t launch anything because my C drive is filled with its junk. I can’t even start a Blank project because editor claims “Failed to copy N:/UnrealEngine/4.0/samples/StarterContent/Content/Materials/(etc)” to C:\Users\xxx\Unreal Projects\

How can I set editor to compile everything to N drive, and stop filling C? I’d like to move entire C:\Users\xxx\Documents\Unreal Projects onto N drive but don’t want to lose all examples I’ve already downloaded.

Using: Windows 7 x64

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Hey Elyptic,

You can choose a location for a new project at creation by clicking Down Arrow button on right side of Project Browser. It’s right above Create Project button. That will let you create a new project on your secondary drive.

Launcher automatically downloads example projects to C: drive. It’s a known issue and we are working to fix it. In meantime, you should be able to move those files from your C: drive to a secondary drive without any problems. If they were not fully downloaded because your C: drive was full, there may be problems with files, unfortunately, and you might need to make some room on your C: and try downloading them again.

Hope that helps!

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Hi Elyptic

We currently don’t allow you to change where Unreal Project’s directory is located. But a trick I use at home is to move location of the “My Documents” folder and Windows will automatically move everything.

I did some quick googling and got a good set of instructions. It’s pretty easy. But I don’t want to be responsible for any data loss so, back things up before moving it :slight_smile:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-move-windows-7-personal-folders-my-documents-another-drive.htm

Your already downloaded content should load correctly from new location.

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Thanks for helping find arrow, though without changing download location it’s not going to help much. At least I can move existing projects there, but any large downloadable projects are going to fail I suppose.

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Thanks , as mentioned above this is a hack fix in meantime, and it should get things working, but I don’t think I’ll want to stick with it in long run. Plus my other programs will probably start rioting as this location hasn’t changed in four years. Hopefully an editable project location is in future for this.

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I have had success with UE3, using a Junction Point to relocate data that engine is looking for to another location. Basically, install this

Link Shell Extension

and then move your Unreal Project directory wherever you want it to go, then as it says on page for that utility you can set new location as target, and drop a Junction Point back into your original location. As far as engine is concerned files are still where it wants them, but they’re actually being stored elsewhere.
Its still a dirty hack, but it doesn’t affect other aspects of your environment.

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Our apologies. We know a non trivial number of users will want to customize install location for samples and other downloads. It’s on list of things to fix soon. Though I don’t have an ETA.

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This isn’t really a workable solution for me. My ‘Documents’ folder is already set up so that it’s located in my Dropbox, but I don’t want my Unreal projects to end up in my dropbox folder (particularly multi-gigabyte example projects that aren’t really ‘my documents’)

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Use Dropbox’s selective sync option to ignore Unreal Projects folder so that it won’t be uploaded or counted in your Dropbox account.

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After moving my Documents folder via windows method above, I thought it had worked. Today I still see my C drive filling up after launcher ‘repair’ just downloads things back into C\Users\xxx\Unreal Projects anyways, regardless of my new setting and location for My Documents. Launcher has no options, it continues to download marketplace items etc into same original location, so now I have duplicates of everything I downloaded yesterday. I think I’ll just move my documents back to initial location, remove samples, and wait for a real fix.

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Have a look at solution I proposed below - it’s worked without issues for a number of other users in other threads.

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I managed to get it working without any issuea

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Perfect. Thank you twiddle, a very handy tool. Too many applications want to be on my C drive, when there is tons of space elsewhere.

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This is going to be my next option. I’ve reverted my documents to its original location and will try this shell extension tomorrow.

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OK it worked somewhat, in that I can download new content and it ends up in my secondary location. problem is it still wants to ‘repair’ existing items, which means re-downloading all of content again. Repair doesn’t really repair anything (i.e. re-linking / updating references), should be labeled ‘Re-download’.

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Hi Elyptic

Another alternative option for you, it is same option I used to navigate itunes backup files elsewhere.

First, cut your unreal project file from default location in C: to your designated location.

Second, use windows cmd.exe command as administrator and type below command line.

mklink /d “c:\users\YOURNAME\documents\unreal projects” “z:\XXX\unreal projects”

2726-捕获.jpg

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only issue with this is it creates a symbolic link rather than a junction or hardlink. UE3 had issues with this - when you were browsing for files or folders to save assets etc, it would actually traverse link and tell you destination folder rather than keeping file path relative to link itself.
You can use /j to create a junction rather than a symlink which seems to avoid this issue; shell extension I linked in my answer makes it easy to do that without command line.

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I have exact same problem. Small SSD for windows and every **** programs insists on filling it with ****! Please fix this. This is a show stopper for me.

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I’ve tried creating a junction using link shell extension and project downloads are seen fine on second drive but ContentExamples are flagged as ‘repair’ and still download to C drive … I don’t understand why o.O
Not sure if twiddle can shed any light on this for me? Or anyone at all really :slight_smile:

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Unfortunately it only works for items downloaded from Marketplace after creating junction, in order to keep projects working from Launcher. Once you re-download them (with ‘repair’), they will be saved/overwritten to new location and available properly in Launcher. So yeah, re-download the ~10 gigs.