Where Does Wire Store Data?
Wire Desktop is an Electron app and keeps accounts and sessions in the standard user data directory. Wire for Android keeps databases and keys in private internal storage.
Last updated
Desktop data includes config, IndexedDB records, Local Storage, and cache for attachments and sessions. Install binaries live in a separate directory from user data on Windows.
Android data includes account databases and encryption material under the app private directory. That private directory requires elevated access while shared media may sit in public storage.
Where Wire stores this, by platform
%APPDATA%\Wire
%APPDATA% expands to C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming where <user> is the account name. Holds config folder, IndexedDB store, Service Worker cache, and logs. Install files live under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Wire. Custom location can be set with the user data dir startup flag.
~/Library/Application Support/Wire
Tilde expands to /Users/<user> where <user> is the account name. App Store builds may use ~/Library/Containers/com.wearezeta.zclient.mac/Data/Library/Application Support/Wire where the middle segment is the bundle container. Holds accounts, IndexedDB, and cache.
/data/data/com.wire
Private internal storage for the production app with application ID com.wire where dev and internal builds use different IDs. Holds databases such as ZGlobal.db plus files for otr sessions, prekeys, identities, and assets. Requires root or a forensic image to read. Encrypted media copies may also appear under Android/data/com.wire on shared storage.
Frequently asked questions
Where are messages and attachments?
On Desktop, messages live in IndexedDB under the user data directory and attachments live in Service Worker cache storage. On Android, message databases live in the databases folder while assets live under files and shared storage in encrypted form.
Can I run Wire portably?
Desktop supports a portable mode that writes to a Data folder next to the launch location. It also supports a user data dir flag for a custom directory. Back up the directory before switching modes.
Notice an outdated path? Let us know.