Application directory

Overview

Depending on your installation method and OS, you will have one or two directories that contain Factorio assets.

User Data directory

The user data directory is where personal files are stored, such as world saves. Search your computer for this directory, or type it into your file manager address bar.

Windows

%appdata%\Factorio

Mac OSX

~/Library/Application Support/factorio

Linux

~/.factorio

Zip File

The unzipped Factorio directory

A list of all things found here:

• Save games (as zip files)
• User-installed/created Mods.
• User-installed/created scenarios.
• User configuration and settings storage
• Log File (factorio-*.log)
• Player data (player-data.json)

Note: Deleting the configuration file will result in a default replacement being generated upon the next Factorio launch.

It is recommended to create backups from this directory (of saves, config, etc) before installing a new version, or installing mods.

Application directory

The application directory stores three things:

• Factorio executables (./bin)
• Data for vanilla Factorio (./data)
• API documentation

Windows

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Factorio
C:\Program Files\Factorio

Mac OSX

~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/factorio.app/Contents
/Applications/factorio.app/Contents

Linux

~/.factorio

Zip File

The unzipped Factorio directory

Changing the user data directory

You can create a file config-path.config to configure Factorio to any directory.

Please see this discussion (for MacOS, but should work on any other OS).

In order to change the user data directory, user must edit the location of the "write-data" entry in the file __Game_Install_directory/config/config.ini. This affects the location of mods, scenario and temp.

If you want to move only the location of your save files you can change the the save directory using symlinks but this still means that all users of the computer will share the same data, including settings.

Linux

Update __Game_Install_directory/config-path.cfg

use-system-read-write-data-directories=true

Update __Game_Install_directory/config/config.ini

[path]
read-data=__PATH__executable__/../../data
write-data=.local/share/factorio

You could set the write-data value to .factorio if you prefer.

Once you have done this, you can remove write permissions to the entire game installation directory except for config/config.ini, which must be writable by all people who wish to play the game.

Note that if someone changes any options, in-game, those option changes will apply to everyone who plays on the same computer.

See also

• Download and Installation
• Install Guide
• Mods
• Installing Mods
• Forum discussion
• Linux Version - Save games in $HOME somewhere