Forum Discussion

5 years ago

Solved

Unable to change game installation directory from EA desktop app

Product: EA Desktop
Platform:PC
Error Report ID (learn how to create an Error Report ID in the sticky post) 3df80038-1ac3-43f2-b3c3-423ba61274c4
Which client functionality are you experiencing this bug with? Download Game
When did this happen? (dd.mm.yy hh:mm) 09.03.21 19:00, but i have had this issue for months and was unable to use this app because of this problem
Summarize your bug after installing ea desktop app I am unable to change the game installation directory to another drive by going into settings->downloads. Also if i select a game to download and try to change the game installation directory from the game download menu, same thing happens, I am unable to select a new download directory and just get a blank popup.
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? either, within the ea desktop app go to settings->downloads and select "edit" on the download directory to try to change it.. another way to reproduce it is to select a game to download, within the popup there is an option to select game install directory. If you try to select a new directory to install this game into, you just get a blank popup.
What happens when the bug occurs? instead of getting a popup to select a new drive directory so you can install/download new games into, you get a blank popup instead.
What do you expect to see? I expect to be able to select a different drive and/or directory to be able to install my games into.

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after installing ea desktop app I am unable to change the game installation directory to another drive by going into settings->downloads. Also if i select a game to download and try to change the game installation directory from the game download menu, same thing happens, I am unable to select a new download/installation directory and just get a blank popup. I should be able to select a new drive and/or folder to install my games into. I keep my apps and games on a different drive than C drive so I have a 2nd, larger drive to which I install my games into (ex. D:/games/)

bug

mac

Kerad2
5 years ago
@Jytix I actually found a temp solution to installing games on a different drive from ea desktop.. so I keep my games in D:\Games\ I found that if you select to change game install directory and you get the blank screen, you can still manually type in the path you want.. although for some reason it only allows you to include a single folder hierarchy but it's better than nothing. so if you try to install battlefield 5 and you go to change directory and lets say you want to install in E drive and Games folder, you would manually type in E:\Games Afterwards if you click select folder it will change the path of install to E:\Games\Battlefield V
Give it a try.. also it will not work if you try for example E:\Games\EA Games\ as it does not like going more than one folder up.. good luck

163 Replies

0nly1ken0bi
New Scout
3 years ago
So ever since the EA app, I've been unable to change the installation directory. I was able to do so however in the old Origin App. "

This seems to be EA preventing the game from being copied to another (PC). That said, here is a quick and dirty workaround.
This solution requires you to manually changes your DRIVE Letter under Disk Management on Windows. Just note that when you do this, any other Windows application that uses that drive won't work.
So for example:

If EA game is installed on D:\...

You can simply change the NEW DRIVE letter you want to move your games to, to D:
As mentioned above this will change the old drive's letter to something else .i.e. Drive Letter P:
If you have no other working applications referencing that OLD DRIVE then simply copying over the entire game folder to the NEW DRIVE and changing the DRIVE LETTER to what OLD one was should work for you.

YES it's a very UGLY workaround but it's the only way to move your games to a newer/bigger/faster drive until EA allows us to Switch our Game directory drives through the settings menu within the EA App.
To change the DRIVE LETTER on Windows, simply RIGHT Click on the START MENU and then select DISK MANAGEMENT from the popup menu.

Note, if you do this, YOU are doing so at YOUR OWN RISK. I take NO responsibility nor accountability should you mess up your own system with this ugly proposed workaround.

Hope this helps.
Cheers
45j1pwqyk02u
3 years ago
Do you remember from where you downloads the EA app? I was trying to do this and ensuring the app is installed on the drive that I want, but for some reason before installation a new message appears where it talks about granting permission - if I expand I see that the EA app location for installation is Drive C again, even though I just put Drive D .... it's so annoying I really don't know how to work around it
EA_Leeuw
Community Manager
2 years ago
Closing this thread since it's quite old. We have a new thread here: Game Installation & Download Directory Unchangeable Since January 2024.