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Can’t see the AppData folder?

May 29, 2012

I’ve had a couple of instances recently where clients or colleagues haven’t been able to install their corporate Microsoft Word template into the Templates folder (C:\Users\[user_name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates). And the reason has been that they couldn’t see the AppData folder. That’s because Windows hides the AppData folder by default, and you have to ‘unhide’ it before you can see it.

Here’s how to show hidden folders etc. in Windows 7 (see below for Windows 10).

  1. Go to Windows Explorer.
  2. Open the C: drive.
  3. Click Organize on the menu bar.
  4. Select Folder and Search options.
  5. Select the View tab.
  6. Under Files and Folders > Hidden files and folders, select the option to Show hidden files, folders and drives.
  7. Click OK.

Windows 10:

  1. Go to Explorer.
  2. Open the C: drive.
  3. Click View on the menu bar.
  4. Click the Options icon. (If you click the small arrow below it instead, choose Change Folder and Search options).
  5. Select the View tab.
  6. Under Files and Folders > Hidden files and folders, select the option to Show hidden files, folders and drives.
  7. Click OK.

Your AppData folder should show, and you should now be able to add your template into the Templates folder.

Posted in Word |

46 comments

  1. Thanks how frustrating MICROSOFT can be – unbelievable. It would be intelligent if you hit SAVE AS and you have a file ending dotx the template folder would just appear. In former Windows this was never a “random search” problem but then most programs have deteriorated terribly.

         by Harald P. Sandow February 25, 2013 at 2:24 pm

  2. Yes, this did help. Thanks

         by Mustafa June 24, 2013 at 3:21 am

  3. ahh i finally found the “appdata” folder, thanks a lot!

         by Aey August 4, 2013 at 3:31 pm

  4. I have followed the instructions above and several hidden folders appeared but not the appdata folder. What other remedy should I do.

         by Seeker October 16, 2013 at 2:57 pm

  5. I got it.Thanks it worked!

         by Seeker October 16, 2013 at 2:58 pm

  6. The best tutorial on appdata search.
    Thanks

         by Eric October 29, 2013 at 9:59 pm

  7. I have the same problem as “seeker” above… I already knew how to display the hidden files and folders as you described above – I ran through it again just to make sure the settings were correct but still I can see all of the hidden files except for the users/…../”APPDATA” folder and it’s contents. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT I CAN DO TO GET IT TO DISPLAY?
    Seeker, did you figure out how to see it yet? I have a Dell studio 17″, Windows 7 premium, Intel core i7 with 8 cores. I listed it just wondering if you have the same thing or a relative of it.

         by Chris Coughma January 9, 2014 at 12:50 am

  8. Duh!! Seeker, I missed your latest post until after I wrote mine. How were you able to get it?

         by Chris Coughma January 9, 2014 at 12:55 am

  9. You said Windows hides the Appdata folder by default. Am I missing something or is is obvious to everyone why that is the case? Please elaborate as to why this folder is hidden by default? What is the purpose of this folder? Can I delete it without dire consequence?

         by Philip February 2, 2014 at 8:34 am

  10. The reason it is hidden by default is that it is a system folder that is REQUIRED for many applications that you have installed. It holds your settings, among other things. DO NOT delete this folder, otherwise your apps won’t work.

         by Rhonda February 2, 2014 at 9:37 am

  11. Thank-you! After an MS Office update, I spent over an hour trying to locate what appeared to be lost, then when found I was unable to find the Appdata folder. Your tip took me right to problem.

         by Harry October 6, 2014 at 10:11 pm

  12. i did everything you said but i still can’t open the appdata.. whenever i unhide it. it automatically gets hidden again

         by Alex February 13, 2015 at 8:03 pm

  13. Yes the person who wrote is like too many so called experts.That is a problem I have had also and am having now again. Even with hidden folders set to display “appdat” still does not display. There is a solution. I forget what it is now and am looking again. Keep looking. I think you can do it from the command line from memory.

         by Ross Kapernick February 21, 2015 at 1:02 pm

  14. Here is the real solution.
    The first thing you need to do is open up the AppData folder, itself. This can be done by going to the Start menu (for Windows 7 and Vista users) and typing in “%appdata%” with no quotes.

    Another way to do this is by going to the C: drive in My Computer and typing “%appdata%” (again, no quotes) into the search bar at the top. This is the method I use in the tutorial.

    Notice that, even when doing this, you will be put in the Roaming folder if you have one. You need to be in the AppData folder, itself. To do this, go to the search bar up at the top and click AppData.

    When you are in the AppData folder, right click on any empty space, and click properties. Under the General tab, there will be two check boxes. One will be for Read-Only and one will say Hidden. By default, the “Hidden” box is checked. In this tutorial, mine is not since I’ve already preformed this procedure.

    Make sure the “Hidden” box is unchecked and click apply. Make sure you select the option to include all subfolders. Then wait for it to go through all of the folders, and voila! You can now access the AppData folder without having to use the Start menu.

         by Ross Kapernick February 21, 2015 at 1:09 pm

  15. Go to Computer (the top level on the drive), and type %appdata%

         by John February 22, 2015 at 12:49 am

  16. […] Moon profile – but you have to unhide your AppData folder first,  to unhide it see eg this post). However, when I tried it, I got an error message the first time, and the next time, it took about […]

         by Pale Moon browser review – best Firefox alternative | Rory Will July 12, 2015 at 4:24 pm

  17. I’m getting an Aw, Snap! message after google chrome crashes, and I think I’ve found the User Data file which Chrome Help!advised to rename as “Old Default”. (I had to unhide the folder.)

    But I see a lot of files and folders inside the User Data folder, and I’m worried I will screw up some apps (or worse) if I change the name.

    Am I safe?

    Vista32 user

         by Jay Elink August 10, 2015 at 2:34 am

  18. Hi Jay

    This post is about the Windows AppData folder, not about Chrome. If Chrome support have told you where the folder is you need to rename, and you’ve found it, then it should be safe to rename it. DON’T rename anything else.

    –Rhonda

         by Rhonda August 10, 2015 at 7:03 am

  19. Thanks for setting me straight, Rhonda.

         by Jay Elink August 10, 2015 at 12:06 pm

  20. Hi! Thanks for the writeup on unhiding the AppData folder. You instructions were very clear!
    Best wishes,
    Zephyr

         by zephyrrodrigues September 4, 2015 at 6:27 am

  21. Thank you for posting these instructions. They were perfect and did the trick.
    DC

         by DC November 23, 2015 at 12:58 am

  22. Thank you mate, helped me out!

         by Danyaal Butt November 24, 2015 at 3:43 am

  23. Helped me too. I couldn’t find where an etax update file went, there being no option to save it where I wanted it. I did a search and found the path, but I needed to show hidden files to get to it. Many thanks.

         by Abbeden December 7, 2015 at 2:11 pm

  24. i use win 8 the prosidue did not work in my case

         by justice December 8, 2015 at 12:02 am

  25. re: Ross Kapernick You did it, buddy! Thank you thank you. Wasted SOOO much time with other basic or partial instructions until I found yours above.

         by Enid January 17, 2016 at 5:12 am

  26. i got it

         by enthotibalaji February 29, 2016 at 9:16 pm

  27. Thanks Rhonda, and special thanks to Ross Kapernick, without whose additional instructions it wouldn’t have worked.

    (It’s so frustrating for something I had always done without any problem–even on the same version of Windows!–to suddenly become a roadblock on a new laptop at a new job.)

         by Mark Nazimova August 5, 2016 at 4:54 am

  28. thanks dude
    finally i found it
    it was really helpful

         by deepti December 27, 2016 at 12:53 pm

  29. Thank you. Your post 1. directly responds to the query searched for and 2. solves the problem with no extraneous preamble.

         by TQ January 15, 2017 at 9:48 pm

  30. Tnx

         by Djayce April 2, 2017 at 4:28 am

  31. […] If you can’t see the AppData folder, follow the steps in this post: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/cant-see-the-appdata-folder/ […]

         by Word: Copy AutoCorrect entries to another computer | CyberText Newsletter May 3, 2017 at 11:07 am

  32. Thank you, Ross, for “%appdata%” approach. Genius.

         by Richard Laidman July 10, 2017 at 11:03 pm

  33. Thank You so much!

         by C Martin November 16, 2017 at 11:06 pm

  34. If you follow the instructions above and still don’t see the Audacity folder in the “Roaming” folder then open Audacity. Put a MP3 in it. Don’t change any settings but extract the file to your desktop or save it to where ever you can find it to delete it later. Now go back to the “Roaming” folder and Audacity folder will show. You have to save a file from Audacity first most times to make this folder show. I don’t know why it works this way. Now delete the file you saved.

    My problem is in the audacity.cfg file there are no lines saying [MP3]
    MP3LibPath= . I even did a search but they just aren’t there. Maybe because I installed Lame first before searching, I just don’t know.

    I hope these instructions will help someone.

         by Vampy May 26, 2018 at 12:25 am

  35. tnx alot :)

         by Yosef XSamurai October 7, 2018 at 12:59 am

  36. […] The first thing was to find out where the dictionary files are stored. I use Word for Windows, so this information is for Windows. By default, the Office dictionary files (Office 2010 to 2016, at least) are stored in C:Users<username>AppDataRoamingMicrosoftUProof and have a *.dic file extension. (Note: Follow these instructions if you can’t see the AppData folder.) […]

         by Word: Create a custom dictionary populated with thousands of terms | CyberText Newsletter November 30, 2018 at 4:32 pm

  37. Thank you, the article helped me findout my missed outflook file which was opened and directly edited and saved.

         by KAVIARASU January 27, 2019 at 8:08 pm

  38. I cant find the”Folder and search”

         by ewerqer August 4, 2019 at 11:54 pm

  39. Hi ewerger

    I’ve now added the instructions for Windows 10, which are slightly different than for Windows 7.

    –Rhonda

         by Rhonda August 5, 2019 at 6:35 am

  40. it does work,thanks a lot :D

         by On October 28, 2019 at 7:23 am

  41. […] Make sure you have the show hidden files and folders checked on your computer so that you are viewing everything. This is where I had been blind for years on this one computer. This is a default setting on computers. Follow this link for instructions: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/cant-see-the-appdata-folder/ […]

         by How Is My Disk Space Full? | Technology Titans LLC February 28, 2020 at 11:04 am

  42. Thanks. You’re a great man!

         by Peter June 6, 2020 at 4:10 pm

  43. Thanks.. Was really helpful

         by Emmanuel September 5, 2020 at 6:47 pm

  44. Thanks it helped a lot….

         by Subbayu May 21, 2021 at 3:16 pm

  45. Thank You for all those who provided the solution. :)

         by mohammed MUSHTAQ June 7, 2021 at 6:31 pm

  46. Thanks! This really helped

         by Dubs April 22, 2023 at 8:23 pm

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