Data and folders

NeoDownloader keeps two kinds of things in two places: its own data - projects, settings, the licence - and the files it downloads for you. This page says where each lives, what NeoDownloader promises about your folders, and what happens when a folder moves.

NeoDownloader's own data

• Installed version: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Neowise\NeoDownloader. To open it, paste that line into the address bar of File Explorer.
• Portable version: the data folder beside NeoDownloader.exe.

In it are your projects and settings, each project's journal and thumbnails, the licence, NeoDownloader's own log, and the profile of its browser - with your sign-ins to sites. The plugins are not here: they live in the program's folder and come with it.

The data folder holds your licence and your sign-ins, so do not send it to anyone or put it where others can reach it. What NeoDownloader sends over the network is in Privacy.

Where files are downloaded

Each project downloads into its own folder, chosen when the project is made: the Destination folder on the wizard's last step. Unless you change it, it is your download folder plus the project's name.

• Installed version: the download folder is NeoDownloader inside your Downloads folder, unless you choose another in Settings… → Program → General → Default download folder. Projects that already exist keep the folder they were given.
• Portable version: the download folder is downloads beside NeoDownloader.exe, and the setting cannot be changed. A project can still be given another folder when it is made.

Thumbnails and everything else NeoDownloader keeps about a project stay in its data, not beside your files: the project's folder holds only what was downloaded, and the .part files of downloads still under way.

Nothing is written above a project's folder

Everything a project downloads stays inside its folder; nothing is written above it, at any level. A plugin may arrange files in subfolders, but a path that would lead out of the project's folder is refused before the file is created, and the journal says This file would be written outside the project folder: ….

The rule protects the folders around the one you chose. The folder itself is your choice, so choose one meant for downloads.

Moved folders and external drives

• Before a run, NeoDownloader looks at the folder that a project's folder sits in. If that folder is there, a missing project folder - deleted, renamed or moved elsewhere - is created again in the same place, and the run downloads into it. To go on downloading into a folder you moved, first open the project's Properties window and choose the folder's new place in Destination folder.
• If the folder above is missing too, because a drive is disconnected or a network folder is not available, the run stops without creating anything, and the journal says The folder to download into cannot be reached, and neither can the one it sits in: …. Connect the drive, or choose the folder's new place in Destination folder. This check is not made inside the NeoDownloader folder in your Downloads folder or the portable version's downloads folder: a project folder there is created again together with the folders above it.
• For a project's folder right at the top of a drive, such as E:\Photos, the folder it sits in is the drive itself. If another drive is connected under the same letter, the run creates the folder on that drive.
• A file deleted or moved outside NeoDownloader is marked Not on disk in the list of files; see Files.
• The portable version remembers the folders inside its own folder relative to it, so the whole folder can be moved to another disk or a USB drive, and it goes on downloading into itself.

Deleting a project

A deleted project goes to the trash, and its downloaded files stay on disk unless you tick Also delete the downloaded files - then NeoDownloader deletes only what this project downloaded. See Projects.

No backups

NeoDownloader does not back up projects and has no way to move them to another computer. The portable version is the exception, because everything travels in its folder; on another computer its Premium has to be activated again, and once more when the folder is back on the first computer. More about the two versions is in Install, update and remove.