The Chromium Projects

Search this site

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license, and examples are licensed under the BSD License.
User Experience‎ > ‎

User Data Directory

The user data directory contains data specific to a given user. Some examples of this type of data are: history, bookmarks, and cookies. Note that in Windows, the profile name is included in the directory hierarchy.

Default Location

Windows XP

Google Chrome: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
Chromium: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Chromium\User Data\Default

Windows 7 or Vista

Google Chrome: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
Chromium: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Chromium\User Data\Default

Mac OS X

Google Chrome: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default
Chromium: ~/Library/Application Support/Chromium/Default

Linux

Google Chrome: ~/.config/google-chrome/Default
Chromium: ~/.config/chromium/Default

ChromeOS: /home/chronos/

The cache directory follows the XDG specs:
Google Chrome: $XDG_CACHE_HOME/google-chrome, which defaults to ~/.cache/google-chrome
Chromium: $XDG_CACHE_HOME/chromium, which defaults to ~/.cache/chromium
If you pass --user-data-dir=/path/to/foo, the cache will be under /path/to/foo.

Running from a Custom Location

You can also start Chromium with a custom user data directory in order to run multiple instances at the same time.

Windows

To do this, add the --user-data-dir flag to chrome.exe, like this: chrome.exe --user-data-dir=c:\foo.

Mac OS X

  1. Open AppleScript Script Editor (either in Applications/Utilities or Applications/AppleScript)
  2. Enter this:
    1. Chromium: 
      do shell script "/Applications/Chromium.app/Contents/MacOS/Chromium --user-data-dir=/Users/$USER/Library/Application\\ Support/ChromiumPersonal > /dev/null 2>&1 &"
    2. Google Chrome: do shell script "/Applications/Google\\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\\ Chrome --user-data-dir=/Users/$USER/Library/Application\\ Support/Google/ChromePersonal > /dev/null 2>&1 &"
  3. If you did not install Chromium in the default location, modify the script as appropriate.
  4. Save the script in your Applications directory with the file format Application.
  5. Now close the Script Editor and find your newly created application and run it. Running this application will open another Chromium instance pointing to your new profile.
  6. If you want this application to have the same icon as Chromium, then select the Chromium application and type command+i to open the info dialog. Select the icon at the top left of the info dialog and you will see a blue highlight around the icon. Copy the icon using command+c. Now open the info dialog for the new script application using command+i. Select the icon at the top left and paste the copied icon using command+v.
Comments