Where Is the AppData Folder on Windows?
The full paths to AppData Roaming, Local and LocalLow, how to show the hidden folder, and which one you can safely empty.
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AppData is a hidden folder inside your user profile, and every program you install writes something into it. The full path is C:\Users\[Username]\AppData, holding three subfolders that do very different jobs: Roaming, Local and LocalLow.
Windows hides it on purpose, because deleting the wrong thing here takes settings and saves with it. Type %appdata% into the File Explorer address bar or the Run box (Win+R) and you land straight in Roaming, which is what most guides actually mean by %appdata%. To browse the folder itself, switch on hidden items in File Explorer's View menu.
The rule that saves people: the contents of Local\Temp are a cache and are usually safe to clear, while the rest of Roaming and Local holds data apps cannot rebuild.
Where Windows stores this, by platform
C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming
This is what %appdata% expands to, in the File Explorer address bar and in the Run box. Roaming follows a roaming domain profile to other machines on the network, so user settings and small amounts of app data live here. The AppData folder is hidden by default: on Windows 11 use File Explorer > View > Show > Show Hidden Items, on Windows 10 tick Hidden items in the View tab.
C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local
Reached with %localappdata%. Machine-only data: installers, browser caches, shader compilers and other bulky files that would be pointless to sync between PCs. Clearing the contents of Local\Temp is normally fine, and Windows' own cleanup tools do it routinely, but emptying the rest of Local forces apps to rebuild or re-download what they need.
C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\LocalLow
The lowest-privilege of the three, used by sandboxed and low-integrity programs such as browsers running in protected mode. A low-integrity process is not allowed to write into Local or Roaming, so its output lands here. Leave it alone unless you are cleaning up after one specific app.
Frequently asked questions
How do I open the AppData folder in Windows 11?
Press Win+R and type %appdata% for Roaming or %localappdata% for Local, or type either into the File Explorer address bar. To see AppData itself in the profile folder, turn on Show Hidden Items from File Explorer's View > Show menu.
Is it safe to delete the contents of AppData\Local\Temp?
Usually yes. Those are leftover files programs failed to clean up, and Windows deletes them during maintenance anyway. Close your programs first, skip anything reported as in use, and do not touch the rest of Local, which holds settings and data apps cannot rebuild.
What happens if I move or rename the AppData folder?
Windows and most apps assume AppData sits at C:\Users\[Username]\AppData and never look anywhere else, so settings, saves and caches stop loading and apps fall back to defaults. Move one app's folder inside AppData if you need disk space, never AppData itself.
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