Where Does osu! Store Beatmaps and Settings?
osu! keeps beatmaps, skins, scores and settings in one install folder. Songs, database files, and config paths.
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Classic osu! keeps its entire world in one install folder, defaulting to LocalAppData\osu!. Songs holds one folder per beatmap with audio, backgrounds and storyboards. Skins holds interface skins. A set of .db database files tracks scores, collections and the beatmap cache, while .cfg files hold your settings.
The installer lets you relocate this folder in its ten-second window, so veteran installs live on all kinds of drives; the in-game Open osu! folder button finds it wherever it went. Beatmap archives (.osz) and skin archives (.osk) are just zip files that osu! extracts into Songs and Skins when opened. Note this covers stable osu!; lazer uses hashed storage instead.
Where osu! stores this, by platform
%LOCALAPPDATA%\osu!
Songs, Skins, Downloads and Exports subfolders plus scores.db, osu!.db, collections.db and per-user .cfg files. Reach it in-game via settings, Open osu! folder. The installer allows relocation during its countdown, so check there before assuming LocalAppData. .osz and .osk files dropped on the window auto-extract into Songs and Skins.
/Applications/osu!.app/Contents/Resources/drive_c/osu!
The legacy macOS build wraps the same Windows layout in Wine at this path. Same Songs, Skins and .db structure inside. osu!lazer on modern macOS uses hashed files storage instead; this entry covers the classic layout shared with Windows.
Frequently asked questions
how do i move osu beatmaps to a new pc
Press Ctrl+O for settings, click Open osu! folder, and copy the Songs folder to the same spot on the new PC. Scores live in scores.db and beatmap metadata in osu!.db, so copy those database files too with osu! closed. Skins travel as folders in Skins or as .osk exports.
how do i install osz and osk files
Double-click it or drag it onto the osu! window. The game extracts .osz archives into Songs and .osk skin archives into Skins automatically. Files placed by hand need a running client refresh: press F5 in song select for beatmaps or Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S for skins.
why are my lazer files hashed gibberish
That is osu!lazer, the rewrite, which stores everything content-addressed by hash in a files subfolder instead of readable Songs and Skins folders. Stable osu! uses the classic layout in this post. The two clients do not share libraries, so pick one home per machine.
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