Relocation of 'LabVIEW Data\' directory

[Justin_Reina]

For my installation of LabVIEW Community 2020 (v20.0), I keep getting a directory 'LabVIEW Data\' created in my Documents directory, all the time!

I don't want this there and delete that but then it reappears, multiple times per day - is this possible to setup to a different location?

[Bob_Schor · Accepted solution]

Open LabVIEW.  Find the Tools menu, click Options, find the "Paths" option, change "Default Data Directory" to your choice.

My practice is to leave this alone.  I create my own folder, "LabVIEW", where I keep my own code.  I let LabVIEW have "LabVIEW Data" for its "LabVIEW working files", and I use my "LabVIEW" folder for my VIs and Projects.

Bob Schor

[Justin_Reina]

Thank you Bob, that totally worked!

Here was that config -

[lsi]

This is particularly important if you have OneDrive syncing your Documents and Desktop folders. Unfortunately, OneDrive and LabVIEW are not fully compatible, and in some cases, LabVIEW may crash on launch. Moving the LabVIEW data folder out of the Documents folder resolves this issue. Additionally, OneDrive doesn't allow selective folder sharing within the Desktop and Documents folders, making it necessary to relocate the LabVIEW data folder to maintain proper control over what gets synced.

[fra6]

It works but if you change "Default Data Directory" to somewhere out of your OneDrive folder, "%userprofile%\Documents" will no longer redirect to your Document folder on OneDrive, and this not only in Labview but in File Explorer too. You may need to restart your PC to see changes. This is unfortunate because I use "%userprofile%\Documents" as a default start location for saving files.

[rolfk]

That sounds bogus. LabVIEW refers by default to <userprofile>\Documents\LabVIEW Data but changing that path in the LabVIEW preferences does NOT change where Windows considers <userprofile> to be. It only changes the path in LabVIEW that it considers its default data directory from a dynamically determined path to whatever path you configure in LabVIEW.