Where Does Unreal Engine Store Cache and Vault?
Unreal Engine derived data, vault cache and project homes on desktop, and the C: fillers to move.
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Unreal scatters gigabytes three ways: engine installs versioned under Program Files\Epic Games (or /Users/Shared on Mac), per user derived data in %LOCALAPPDATA%\UnrealEngine (Common\DerivedDataCache plus Zen storage, tens of GB), and marketplace downloads in ProgramData\Epic\EpicGamesLauncher\VaultCache. Projects default to Documents\Unreal Projects with per project Saved configs.
Moving Vault Cache in launcher settings orphans the old content (clean it by hand; the launcher may redownload anyway). Redirect runaway DDC via Editor Preferences derived data paths or UE-LocalDataCachePath. Launcher project associations live in GameUserSettings.ini (CreatedProjectPaths); Mac mirrors under Library Application Support Epic trees. UEFN stays Windows only.
Where Unreal Engine stores this, by platform
%LOCALAPPDATA%\UnrealEngine\
Per user DDC (Common\DerivedDataCache, Zen data) plus editor settings. Engine in C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_5.x. Vault in C:\ProgramData\Epic\EpicGamesLauncher\VaultCache (relocatable in launcher). Projects in Documents\Unreal Projects.
/Users/Shared/Epic Games/UE_5.x/
Shared engine install (UE5 only; no UEFN). User data in ~/Library/Application Support/Epic/UnrealEngine plus Install.ini. Launcher webcache in ~/Library/Caches/com.epicgames.EpicGamesLauncher. Projects in ~/Documents/Unreal Projects.
~/.config/Epic/UnrealEngine/
UE5 editor only via source or prebuilt (no UEFN). Install.ini, Zen server, per version DDC here. Engine dir user chosen (~/UnrealEngine typical). Data path overridable with UE-LocalDataCachePath.
Frequently asked questions
What is eating my C: drive: Unreal edition?
Usually DerivedDataCache plus Zen storage under %LOCALAPPDATA%\UnrealEngine and a stale VaultCache. Redirect DDC in Editor Preferences or env var, move Vault in launcher settings, and delete the orphaned old Vault by hand.
Can I delete VaultCache safely?
Yes for disk space: projects keep their own imported copies, so only re-adding marketplace content redownloads. Remove Local Content per item in the launcher for surgical cleanup.
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