How to Move XMCL & Game Data to Another Drive

When installing XMCL or downloading many Minecraft versions, mods, resource packs, and shaders, your system drive (C:) can quickly run out of storage space.

This guide explains how to move the launcher application and relocate your Minecraft game data to a secondary disk drive (such as D: or E:).

Quick Recommendation

If you only want to free up disk space on C:, you only need to Change the Game Data Directory inside XMCL. Game data (mods, saves, versions) accounts for 99% of used storage space!

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1. Relocating Minecraft Game Data (Recommended)

XMCL allows you to store all heavy Minecraft files (versions, mods, instances, resource packs, assets) on any drive without reinstalling the launcher.

Steps to Change the Data Directory:

1. Launch XMCL.
2. Open Settings (click the gear icon ⚙️ in the lower-left corner).
3. Go to Global Settings -> General / Storage.
4. Find the Data Directory / Path setting.
5. Click Browse / Change Path and select a folder on your desired drive (e.g. D:\XMCL-Data or E:\MinecraftData).
6. Confirm the selection. XMCL will automatically use the new location for all current and future Minecraft instances, mods, and downloads!

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2. Moving the Launcher Application Binary

Depending on which package format you used to install XMCL, moving the launcher executable requires different methods:

Option A: Portable ZIP Package

• Features: Fully portable and standalone.
• How to move:
  1. Close XMCL if it is running.
  2. Simply copy or cut-and-paste the extracted XMCL folder from C:\ to your new drive (e.g. D:\Games\XMCL).
  3. Run xmcl.exe directly from the new directory. You can create a desktop shortcut from xmcl.exe.

Option B: AppX / Online AppInstaller / WinGet

• Why simple copy fails: AppX, AppInstaller, and WinGet install XMCL as a sandboxed Windows package in protected system paths (C:\Program Files\WindowsApps and %LocalAppData%\Packages). Manually copying these folders in File Explorer will cause Windows permission errors.
• How to move using Windows Settings:
  1. Press Win + I to open Windows Settings.
  2. Navigate to Apps -> Installed apps (or Apps & features).
  3. Search for XMCL.
  4. Click the three dots ... next to XMCL and select Move.
  5. Select your target drive (e.g. D:) from the dropdown list and click Move. Windows will cleanly transfer the application binary and its sandbox data to the selected drive.

Change Default Windows AppX Install Location

To make future AppX / WinGet applications install to another drive by default: Open Settings -> System -> Storage -> Advanced storage settings -> Where new content is saved -> Change New apps will save to: to drive D:.

Option C: macOS (DMG)

• Drag XMCL.app from /Applications to any connected disk volume, or keep the app in /Applications while changing the Game Data Directory inside launcher settings to an external drive.

Option D: Linux (AppImage / Flatpak / Deb / RPM)

• For AppImage, simply move the .AppImage file to any mounted partition (e.g. /media/data/XMCL.AppImage).
• For Deb / RPM / Flatpak, system binaries remain in standard system paths, but all heavy game assets can be directed to another drive using Section 1.