How do you change Location of User Data Files?

[JonYork2]

I need to move my user data file to another drive since the C:\ drives on computers with SSDs is often very small. So I need to move it from my C:\ drive to my B:\ drive. But I can't for the life of me figure out how to do this.

I've copied all the contents from:

C:\users\name\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data and Application

to:

B:\users\name\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data and Application

But Vivaldi is continuing to pick this up from C:. I can't figure out where to instruct it to use the new location.

[Ayespy]

@JonYork2 You can't do it in settings. You have to use a command-line switch on the desktop shortcut (for which I don't know the syntax) or symlinks (which I don't understand how to do either).

On the other hand, you can simply set up the entire app as a standalone in whatever location you want, and the user data files will be in that directory.

[LonM]

If you start vivaldi like so:

vivaldi.exe --user-data-dir=c:\path\to\your\folder

on windows, it will move the files to the specified path.

Other operating systems will behave in a similar way but with a slightly different command.

[JonYork2]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your help.

I wasn't sure where to run that command from so I started from the default C:\ prompt. That didn't work, so I switched to the B:\ prompt and that didn't work either.

Then I switched to the full path of where vivaldi.exe is installed and I get this error each time I tried it:

C:\Users\Jon\AppData\Local\Vivaldi>vivaldi.exe --user-data-dir=b:\Users\Jon\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data
'vivaldi.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

And just for your reference here's the full command I ran:

vivaldi.exe --user-data-dir=b:\Users\Jon\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data

[LonM]

@JonYork2 What might be easiest would be to find the shortcut you use to launch vivaldi, and modify it as follows:

Also, it's probably best not to use a path that has any spaces in it. Otherwise you have to get fiddly with quotes.

As for launching it via a command line, you might need to do like this:

.\vivaldi.exe --user-data-dir=c:\whatever

with a .\ at the front.

[JonYork2]

So yeah, it's showing up fine in the Target shortcut properties. In fact, that's where I first changed it. And it actually opens the program from that location... it just doesn't pull the user data from that location.

If I look at Help/About - it shows up like this:

Executable Path B:\Users\Jon\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\Application\vivaldi.exe
Profile Path C:\Users\Jon\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data\Default

So the executable path is fine - it's the profile path that's the problem.

I just tried using your suggestion of putting .\ before the command and I fiddled around a bit with the quotes, but no change.

[Ayespy]

@JonYork2 If you want it to all be confined to one directory, you simply need to set it up as standalone, not "all users" or "per user." If you're running it from the B: drive, then just install it standalone there.

If you install it for all users or per user, it will set up the user data file in the conventional user profile location.

[lamarca]

AFAIK, there are many "instances" pointed at the profile path. The default path.

[JonYork2]

Oh man... I just spent the last couple of hours trying to get this worked out - and finally got it!

Thanks so much for your help - from all of you. I really appreciate it.

What I ended up doing in the end was making a symbolic link.

If you install this as a standalone - it still uses C:\path to get to the user data folder. I have no idea why. But ultimately I just created a symbolic link from that folder to a folder on another drive and finally it worked. Thankfully! I didn't realize how much time and effort I've put into setting up Vivaldi just the way I like it.

No other browser handles bookmarks and shortcuts as well as Vivaldi. Nor does any other browser handle tabs as well - with the ability to stack them and hibernate them - it really has become the only power browser I can use. In fact, it's really the only power browser. (I usually have anywhere from 60-100 tabs open and if I couldn't hibernate them and group them - it just wouldn't work).

I sure wish though they'd give us a way to simply designate a different folder for its various components. Especially those components that occupy a lot of space!

Anyway, thank you all again so much. You really helped guide me in the right direction. Couldn't have done it without you.

[lamarca]

You are welcome.