Blender

Blender

chico May 19, 2023 @ 12:13am
is there no problem moving blender foundation file location?
At least I believe that this problem will have an adverse effect on other scripts. However, my computer has a small capacity including potatoes, so my purpose is to move it to another hard drive. Can this cause major problems?
Originally posted by Mark3:
You can just also download a zip version of any Blender you want from Blender.org - and run it from any folder or drive that you want. No installation is necessary. Blender is designed to be portable. Just go to Blender.org, click on mac, Linux and other versions button and select Windows Portable (.zip)

As Pops says, the setup with Steam is just to simplify matters for upgrading etc via Steam itself.

Even with a portable version, plug-ins might still create their own folders on the PC, but generally, you can run it from a USB stick if you want to.

Another alternative is to use a symbolic link. This is easy in Win 10 & 11. Other versions will require you to use the Command Prompt and Mklink (still fairly easy).
1. Shut down any copies of Blender, and preferably Steam too.

2. Move your Blender Foundation" folder to another drive, making sure to delete the original.

3. Go to the New folder, Right Click on it in explorer and select "Pick link source",

4. Go to the original location, in AppData, and Right Click. "Select Drop As..." and choose "Symbolic Link" This will create a link Named Blender foundation that points to the other drive and should work just fine.
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The App Data in the Documents folder?
I would not suggest to do that, especially since the files in there aren't particularly large (mine is just 102mb and thats the files for versions since 2.79 or so).
Moving the blender install directory however (like a steam library) is not a big issue).

Just to elaborate, the blenderfoundation folder in AppData contains all the settings and custom scripts for all the blender versions you have ever installed on your system, which allows for quick rollback or even using several generations of blender versions side by side. It's also used whenever there is an update so you can import the previous version setting into the new one. This folder is preset in the blender build and can not be changed from the Preferences within blender. So if you were to move this manually, blender wouldn't have a clue where it went and simply create a new folder with the settings, startup files and scripts in the users folder.

If you are super desperate, you could deleete files from versions you are sure not to use anymore in the future, each version has its own subfolder within the foundation folder.
Last edited by *P0P$*FR3$H3NM3Y3R*; May 19, 2023 @ 4:23am
The author of this thread has indicated that this post answers the original topic.
Mark3 May 24, 2023 @ 2:44am 
You can just also download a zip version of any Blender you want from Blender.org - and run it from any folder or drive that you want. No installation is necessary. Blender is designed to be portable. Just go to Blender.org, click on mac, Linux and other versions button and select Windows Portable (.zip)

As Pops says, the setup with Steam is just to simplify matters for upgrading etc via Steam itself.

Even with a portable version, plug-ins might still create their own folders on the PC, but generally, you can run it from a USB stick if you want to.

Another alternative is to use a symbolic link. This is easy in Win 10 & 11. Other versions will require you to use the Command Prompt and Mklink (still fairly easy).
1. Shut down any copies of Blender, and preferably Steam too.

2. Move your Blender Foundation" folder to another drive, making sure to delete the original.

3. Go to the New folder, Right Click on it in explorer and select "Pick link source",

4. Go to the original location, in AppData, and Right Click. "Select Drop As..." and choose "Symbolic Link" This will create a link Named Blender foundation that points to the other drive and should work just fine.
Mark3 May 25, 2023 @ 2:27am 
That is the point of using a symbolic link. It acts as if the data is still in the original location, and the app treats it as if it is. Not that I feel the need to do it myself, but that was the OPs request...
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Date Posted: May 19, 2023 @ 12:13am
Posts: 3