How can I get the path to the %APPDATA% directory in Python?

Question

How can I get the path to the %APPDATA% directory in Python?

Willywillynilly

Answer 1

If you want AppData\Roaming

import os
print(os.getenv('APPDATA'))

If you are looking for AppData\Local, then use

import os
print(os.getenv('LOCALAPPDATA'))

For AppData\Local\Temp you can get it in this way, which also makes your code portable accross platforms

import tempfile
print(tempfile.gettempdir())

For the differences:

• Roaming is the folder that would be synchronized with a server if you logged into a domain with a roaming profile (enabling you to log into any computer in a domain and access your favorites, documents, etc. Firefox stores its information here, so you could even have the same bookmarks between computers with a roaming profile.

• Local is the folder that is specific to that computer - any information here would not be synchronized with a server. This folder is equivalent in Windows XP to C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data.

See also this answer.

Jules

Note that this returns AppData\Roaming. You need %LOCALAPPDATA% if you are looking for AppData\Local. – Boatyard

If you are looking for AppData\LocalLow you need to use ..\LocalLow as there is no environment variable as far as I can find. – Lyophobic

Answer 2

You may use os.path.expandvars(path):

Return the argument with environment variables expanded. Substrings of the form $name or ${name} are replaced by the value of environment variable name. Malformed variable names and references to non-existing variables are left unchanged.

On Windows, %name% expansions are supported in addition to $name and ${name}.

This comes handy when combining the expanded value with other path components.

Example:

from os import path

sendto_dir = path.expandvars(r'%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo')
dumps_dir = path.expandvars(r'%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps')

Psalmbook

These days pathlib is often more convenient, but, unfortunately it does not implement expandvars(), although it does implement expanduser(). – Gainly

Answer 3

Although the question clearly asks about the Windows-specific %APPDATA% directory, perhaps you have ended up here looking for a cross-platform solution for getting the application data directory for the current user, which varies by OS.

As of Python 3.11, somewhat surprisingly, there is no built-in function to find this directory. However, there are third-party packages, one of them being platformdirs, which provides functions to retrieve paths such as:

• user data dir (user_data_dir)
• user config dir (user_config_dir)
• user cache dir (user_cache_dir)
• site data dir (site_data_dir)
• site config dir (site_config_dir)
• user log dir (user_log_dir)

Fernandina

this answer should have more upvotes – Unreel

It says, platformdirs should be used instead of appdirs, since last is deprecated by authors (reason: platformdirs is more maintained fork of appdir) – Benner

Answer 4

You can try doing:

import os
path = os.getenv('APPDATA')
array = os.listdir(path)
print array

Overplay

This is essentially the same as the accepted answer given five years before. OP asked how to get the path, not how to enumerate the contents of a directory. – Psalmbook

Answer 5

You can use module called appdata. It was developed to get access to different paths for your application, including app data folder. Install it:

pip install appdata

And after that you can use it this way:

from appdata import AppDataPaths
app_paths = AppDataPaths()
app_paths.app_data_path  # for your app data path
app_paths.logs_path  # for logs folder path for your application

It allows to to get not only app data folder and logs folder but has other features to manage paths like managing config files paths. And it's customizable.

Links:

1. Read the Docs - documentation.
2. GitHub - source code.
3. PyPI - package manager (pip).

Tedder

As the author of appdata, you should have a look at How to not be a spammer: it says: "if you mention your product [...], you must disclose your affiliation in your post." – Psalmbook