Windows 10: Change Storage Save Locations in Windows 10

How to: Change Storage Save Locations in Windows 10


Information In Windows 10, you can change the storage drive location for where your new apps, documents, music, photos and videos, movies and TV shows, and offline maps are saved by default. You can use any internal, external, or removable drives as a storage save location. These locations will be reflected in the folders in Quick access

The new storage location you select will automatically be default save location. This way, when you save items in the library, it will actually be saved to the selected storage location.


This tutorial will show you how to change the storage location of where new content like apps, documents, music, photos and videos, movies and TV shows, and offline maps are saved by default for your account in Windows 10.


Note If you disconnect a drive that you set as the storage save location, then the storage save location will automatically revert to the default This PC until you reconnect the drive.

Items saved at one storage location do not automatically get moved to a new storage location when selected.

You will not be able to use a ReFS formatted drive as a storage location.

EXAMPLE: Quick access






Here's How:

1. Open Settings, and click/tap on the System icon.

2. Click/tap on Storage on the left side, and click/tap on the Change where new content is saved link under More storage settings on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3. Select the drive to where you want your apps, documents, music, photos and videos, movies and TV shows, and/or offline maps to be saved to by default, and click/tap on Apply. (see screenshot below)


Note If the storage locations are empty, then check to make sure that the Storage Service service is enabled and set to Start (running) and manual.

How to Start, Stop, Restart, and Disable Services in Windows 10





4. A folder (ex: Brink) with the same name as your C:\Users\(user-name) user profile folder will now automatically be created on the selected save location (ex: Backup (G) ) if it doesn't already exist, then a subfolder (ex: Music) for your documents, music, pictures, or videos will be created inside the main folder (ex: Brink) if it doesn't already exist. This path (ex: "G:\Brink\Music") will be used as the new storage save location. (see screenshots below)



5. The folder (ex: "G:\Brink\Music") from step 4 will now automatically be default save location for the library. (see screenshots below)



6. When finished, you can close Settings if you like.



That's it,
Shawn


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:)

 

app default data storage

Hi norm.goyettenorm.goyette, I am Rob, a volunteer and a 10 time and dual award MVP specializing in Windows troubleshooting and Bluescreen analysis.

These should help you set that up.

Start - Settings - System - Storage - on right side under "More storage options" - "Change were new content is saved".

Change Storage Save Locations in Windows 10

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/23790-chang...

Please let us know the results and if you need further assistance.

 

Can´t change the default storage drive.

In Windows 10, you can change the storage drive location for where your documents, music, pictures, and videos are saved to by default in

Quick access. You can use any internal, external, or removable drives as a storage save location.

The new storage save location you select for your documents, music, pictures, or videos will automatically be
included to the same documents, music, pictures, or videos
library as your default save location. This way, when you save items in the library, it will
actually be saved to the selected storage location.

If you disconnect a drive that you set as the storage save location, then the storage save location will automatically revert to the default
This PC until you reconnect the drive.

Items saved at one storage location do not automatically get moved to a new storage location when selected.

 

Hello Sear, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

It's not suppose to change the location of the library.

Instead, it only creates a folder in the save location you selected, includes that folder in the library, and sets that folder as the default save location for the library.

 

... which I could already do via a completely different UI. So instead of updating the old one or surfacing it better, Microsoft created a different UI which does a subset of the actions a user might want to do elsewhere, in a manner that is confusing, unintuitive and not well explained in the OS itself.

Great!

Nice tutorial though. *Smile

 

Yeah, it's pretty much the same as manually doing it in the library's properties.

Hopefully, this will have more added to it later.

 

What would make this immensely more useful is to allow the users to specify exactly which directory as the default storage location.

I use Google Drive, and it would be great if I could re-direct Windows 10 to store my files there. Of course, Google Drive is a direct competition to the Microsoft OneDrive.

 

On a brand new computer, by default Windows 10 seems to use c:\users\username\onedrive\documents and c:\users\username\onedrive\pictures as the storage location for documents and pictures (Music and Videos are already set to This PC). I am trying to change those locations back to what I am used to which is c:\users\username\documents and c:\users\username\pictures following these instructions. I followed these instructions and change the location for documents and pictures from OneDrive to This PC and click Apply but it does not take. Windows does not save my changes and when I come back to this screen it is back to OneDrive. I am using an Administrator account (setup as local account) in case you are wondering. Any idea why my changes are not sticking?

 

Hello ckerno, *Smile

The method in the tutorial below may be able to help with setting the location back to "This PC".

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html

 

Thanks Brink. Sorry, I forgot to mention that I have changed those settings from OneDrive to This PC and they stay set OK. But System/Storage/Save Locations will not stay set to This PC and it is a problem because when I open Windows Explorer and expand This PC and click on Documents or Pictures those folders are still pointing to OneDrive (I know it is strange, the Documents and Pictures listed under This PC are pointing to OneDrive even though there is a separate listing for OneDrive just above This PC). I have to manually go to c:\users\username\documents and c:\users\username\pictures in Windows Explorer (and have added them to Quick Access) but when I install apps, like an old copy of Canon Zoom Browser, and open it the program is looking to OneDrive\Pictures by default. Any other idea why System/Storage/Save Locations will not save when I click Apply?

 

Brink, I just read more and found this page so I will give this info a shot. Thanks.

Restore Default Location of Personal Folders in Windows 10

 

Hi Brink,

In my previous install of Win 7, I had moved several of my user folders (documents, music, pictures, videos, etc.) from my C:\Users\username\ directory to my second hard drive, moving them to the root directory D:\, as seen in this tutorial. After my upgrade to Win 10, these folders are still there under D:\, but it seems they are no longer considered to be my user folders. Win 10 has created new versions of these folders on my C:\Users\username\ directory. When I use this storage save setting to change from C:\ to D:\, it creates new folders under D:\Users\username\.

Is there a way to use this storage save locations setting to select my previously created folders on the D:\ root, rather than creating new folders under D:\Users\username\?

 

Hello synchrophasor, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

When you upgraded to Windows 10 after moving your default user folders locations, it went back to the default C location and broke the link to the moved location. They are considered separate folders now, with C as your default.

Storage save locations will not use the old ones on D as you have already found out.

Moving your user folders like in OPTION TWO below to these exact same folders on D as before should do as workaround though.

User Folders - Change Default Location - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

I've tried applying this setting to my machine, to deploy the windows image later on other PC's. When sysprepping this image in audit mode and re-deploying it on the same machine with a actual user, the only option that was copied was the "new apps" option.

How does this come? Can't i change the default documents folder to another drive?

 

Hi Dreiba, welcome to Ten Forums.

Unfortunately that's how it works due the mechanism behind the Storage Locations. Location to store new apps is the only one which does not need to know user name or profile name as it is common to all users. All other folders available for storage location change in Settings > Storage > Save locations (Documents, Music, Photos, New films and TV programmes) are user specific folders under environment variable %USERPROFILE%.

When you prepare a deployment image in Audit Mode, your theme and settings will be copied to default user profile if COPYPROFILE in answer file is set to be TRUE, and you use the /generalize switch with sysprep command. Changing the storage locations in Settings will also be carried over to default profile and from there to each new user profile you create. This far everything is OK.

I did a sysprep run just now to get these screenshots and first screenshot below shows the storage settings a minute after a new user has signed in first time after sysprep and OOBE boot:





Everything should be OK now, exactly as set in Audit Mode before sysprep. All user data should be stored on E: drive. However, when I open E: drive I can in addition to apps folder only see the built-in admin storage folders, not my new user's:





This is because changing storage locations in Settings only works for the user account you are currently signed in. Although the settings were saved and copied to my new user, they do not work. As I did this in Audit Mode signed in with built-in admin account, its user data will now be stored to E: drive but for any subsequent user profile, the user in question must exist and be signed in to change the locations.

Very short explanation: any changes in Settings app that are user profile specific do not "survive" sysprep. That's why you can change universal not user specific app storage location in Audit Mode before sysprep, but not storage location of user specific data folders.

However, moving the complete Users folder to another drive works well in Windows 10. To achieve what you want to, user data being stored on another drive and that setting saved on your deployment image, you have to use FolderLocations component in answer file as told in these tutorials:

• Users Folder - Move Location in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
• Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Windows 10 Forums