356

I've just upgraded to Windows 10 Home May 2020, activated WSL2, and installed Docker Desktop.

WSL2 must be installed in my system disk, which is a small SSD. I don't want to fill it with docker images. How do I change the docker images path? I'd like to use a path in my big Windows filesystem.

The image location is somewhat confusing. I believe it is in /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop-data/.

How do I change the directory of docker images inside WSL2? May I change docker configuration to select a path inside /mnt/d, or mount a path from /mnt/d over docker data dirs?

Improve this question

13 Answers 13

Reset to default
840

The WSL 2 docker-desktop-data vm disk image would normally reside in: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Docker\wsl\data\ext4.vhdx

Follow the following to relocate it to other drive/directory, with all existing docker data preserved (tested against Docker Desktop 2.3.0.4 (46911), and continued to work after updating the 3.1.0 (51484)):

First, shut down your docker desktop by right click on the Docker Desktop icon and select Quit Docker Desktop

Then, open your command prompt:

wsl --list -v

You should be able to see, make sure the STATE for both is Stopped.(wsl --shutdown)

  NAME                   STATE           VERSION
* docker-desktop         Stopped         2
  docker-desktop-data    Stopped         2

Export docker-desktop-data into a file

wsl --export docker-desktop-data "D:\Docker\wsl\data\docker-desktop-data.tar"

Unregister docker-desktop-data from wsl, note that after this, your ext4.vhdx file would automatically be removed (so back it up first if you have important existing image/container):

wsl --unregister docker-desktop-data

Import the docker-desktop-data back to wsl, but now the ext4.vhdx would reside in different drive/directory (Note that you will need to create D:\Docker\wsl\data\ if it does not already exist):

wsl --import docker-desktop-data "D:\Docker\wsl\data" "D:\Docker\wsl\data\docker-desktop-data.tar" --version 2

Start the Docker Desktop again and it should work. In the event that Docker Desktop doesn't start correctly, restart the PC and try again.

You may delete the D:\Docker\wsl\data\docker-desktop-data.tar file (NOT the ext4.vhdx file) if everything looks good for you after verifying

Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

25 Comments

Perfect. The only add-on I can add to this thread, is that I had just purged my cache, and I didn't had this docker-desktop-data present on listing, so I had to start Docker again and quit it in order to create the docker-desktop-data WSL distro again.
Note that you will also need to shutdown wsl before exporting (I got a TimeoutException without that) : wsl --shutdown.
In my case at the end of the procedure - after running the command for importing docker-desktop-data.tar to the new location - the WSL did not turn back on automatically (wsl --list -v was still showing results in a "stopped" state) and apparently there was no way to make WSL start again. As a result Docker Desktop could not find its image, so I tried restarting its service, which did not help either, as it was not enough to trigger WSL to turn itself back on... At last, I rebooted my system and when I restarted Docker Desktop it finally ran properly, along with WSL, and found its image...
I had problems related to 'The system cannot find the path specified.', Solved by creating directory 'D:\Docker\wsl\data' directory before procedure.
Note: You can now copy over your vhdx and use --import-in-place to import it, rather than having to export and import. Just a bit more streamlined.
|
76
  1. Stop Docker Desktop
  2. Relocate Docker folder from C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Docker to new path
  3. Make sure C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Docker is no longer there
  4. Open a cmd in administrator mode
  5. Run the following command that will create a symbolic link in the cmd window with the appropriate from and to path
    mklink /j "C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Docker" "path to where you relocated your docker folder"
  1. Restart Docker Desktop
Improve this answer

4 Comments

i did the same steps the docker in appdata\local\Docker shows that shortcut icon as well. but the storage keeps building up despite running the mklink command. did not work for me.
this worked a lot better than editing the config and sticking the VMs onto my HDD via the .tar import method. Thank you!
You might also need to run wsl --shutdown to move the files.
Thanks. I can confirm this works for Rancher Desktop too.
68

Docker for Windows now supports changing this in the UI as shown in the image below. I believe it handles moving the existing file as well.

enter image description here

Improve this answer

6 Comments

This is by far the easiest solution now! No need for all the other complex procedures.
It also moves the files automatically to the new path. Easiest way by far.
When I do this, nothing happens. It's been about 1 hour since I clicked Apply
it shows me the error the system cannot move the file to a different disk drive :(
I tried this and it ended up losing all my data; all containers, images, volumes -- all gone, forever.
|
24

Edit: re-register docker-desktop would set the default docker-data to C drive now, so we should only unregister docker-data as the accepted answer.

You can do

 wsl --unregister docker-desktop-data

 wsl --import docker-desktop-data D:\wsl\docker-desktop-data "C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\resources\wsl\wsl-data.tar" --version=2

The tar file is the file used to install, and before it is your new destination.

This always work while the move-wsl or lxrunoffline didn't work for me on fast rings. And sometimes you have to unistall/install docker first

Improve this answer

1 Comment

For me I had to restart my computer but this did work!
12

Extending @Attila Badi 's answer would be to also give the same treatment to the C:\ProgramData\Docker folder, which seems to be used for WSL / Windows Containers. Even moving the Docker data folders, would still leave you with a boot drive ProgramData\Docker folder of massive proportions - especially if you are unable or unwilling to clean the images. You cannot migrate it, or move it once installed. Using the Docker engine advanced settings works in Linux container mode, but not in windows and vice versa and has trouble starting.

Steps I followed:

  1. Uninstall Docker. I know... Make sure you have saved what you need.

  2. Create the primary space-eating docker folders, in a location you have a lot of space, e.g. :

    D:\Data\Docker\ProgramData_Docker & D:\Data\Docker\AppData_Local_Docker

  3. Create linked folders, by running the below in a command window in administrator mode:

mklink /j "C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Docker" "D:\Data\Docker\ProgramData_Docker"
mklink /j "C:\ProgramData\Docker" "D:\Data\Docker\AppData_Local_Docker"
  1. Install Docker.

You should be able to merrily pull windows server images, but not clog up your boot drive.

Improve this answer

11 Comments

I was trying to avoid this approach but looks like from all the ones I tried this one worked for me. I think My problem is that I'm using new docker but in WSL1 setup and the 2021 answers do not apply on me. And the locations were slightly different, I did only one link here: mklink /j "C:\ProgramData\DockerDesktop" "D:\work\docker"
I'm on WIN10 LTSC which so far has only the WSL1, so then docker put things into slightly different folders and moving folders was not possible for me even when I shutdown Docker/Hyper-V. But when I uninstalled, prepared the C:\ProgramData\DockerDesktop -> D drive link then just installed Docker again then it did exactly what I wanted
Agreed. Shutdown did nothing for me either - it still runs WSL machines in the background somewhere. Glad it worked for you. Docker should fix this and make it property part of settings (advanced even).
It's ridiculous that it's not part of the regular install already, docker is not for casual consumers, yet power users often have elaborate partions/hdds setups, so I would say Docker should have this as an option for long time. Actually one of the reasons why I still use other frameworks like vagrant which feel much more solidly build and designed.
Not working with Docker Desktop. Installation stops with an error: For security reasons c:/ProgramData/DockerDesktop can not by symlink.
|
10

For me docker won't start with junction.

Then I've used just directory symbolic link:

Docker stopped

Folder "wsl" moved to other location on disk "B"

RUben@AD-RUBEN C:\Users\RUben\AppData\Local\Docker
$ mklink /D wsl "B:\dev\wsl"
**symbolic link** created for wsl <<===>> B:\dev\wsl

enter image description here

Containers and Images are ready to use:

enter image description here

Improve this answer

2 Comments

FreeMove utility can do this with a GUI for the lazy ones: github.com/imDema/FreeMove
This concept plus the suggested FreeMove utility made this operation absolutely dead-simple - everything worked perfectly first try. If anyone wants the easy answer, this is it.
6

The best option is to update the registry. Follow the below steps

  1. Shutdown wsl: wsl --shutdown.
  2. Move the entire C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Docker directory to different drive for example D:\Docker.
  3. Go to Registry editor location Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss.
  4. Find the registry entry with the BasePath set to C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Docker\wsl\data. Update this D:\Docker\wsl\data.
  5. Find another registry entry with the BasePath set to C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Docker\wsl\distro. Update this D:\Docker\wsl\distro.
  6. Restart wsl using: wsl -d Ubuntu.
Improve this answer

2 Comments

I wasn't able to move distro with current Docker version. It just restores it in the old place after restart
And, if you move the entire Docker directory then you should change Docker configuration as well, not just Lxss. Probably add execRoot into C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\.docker\daemon.json
5

A nice tool:

DDoSolitary/LxRunOffline: A full-featured utility for managing Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

https://github.com/DDoSolitary/LxRunOffline

LxRunOffline.exe move    Move a distribution to a new directory.
Options:
  -n arg                Name of the distribution
  -d arg                The directory to move the distribution to.

for example:

quit docker desktop, then:

wsl --shutdown
LxRunOffline.exe move -n docker-desktop-data -d D:\vm\dockerdesktop\wsl\data
Improve this answer

Comments

5

In case this is useful to anyone, after hours trying to change things from the Docker Desktop GUI or settings.json or deamon.json, etc to avoid storing the app and the data in C:, I finally found the only way that fully worked to me is to simply:

  1. uninstall Docker Desktop
  2. reinstall it with a command line like this (for example here in my F:\Docker folder):
"Docker Desktop Installer.exe" install --accept-license --installation-dir=F:\Docker\bin --wsl-default-data-root=F:\Docker\wsldata --hyper-v-default-data-root=F:\Docker\hvdata

If will work if you choose WSL2 or Hyper-V as the backend (if you switch to Windows container instead of Linux containers this will be needed).

PS: make sure the target folder, (such as F:\Docker in my case) has needed rights (whatever that means for Docker or its services) otherwise you'll get other cryptic errors like "Unexpected WSL error", etc.

Improve this answer

Comments

3

I found this tool from pxlrbt on github. It's using standard wsl import/export and pretty safe. Just moved both my docker-desktop-data distro to a different drive and it works well.

Improve this answer

1 Comment

After I moved using the above script, I got an error Docker desktop WSL distro stopped. Mind to share the steps?
2

In Windows 10 home, docker desktop creates the VM under C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Dockerdirectory and it is this VM that contains the downloaded docker images. If you want to change the VM location from C: to a different directory you can do this by creating a junction on windows (prior to docker desktop installation) using a command like below:

mklink /j "C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Docker" "D:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Docker"

Note that prior to executing the command the target directory structure should exist while you should delete the C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Docker directory if it exists already else the command could fail. Now install docker desktop on windows 10 home and voila you can see stuff inside D:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Docker directory namely the docker VM hard disk image file that is going to contain all the downloaded docker images.

Improve this answer

Comments

1

Using small SSD also you may want to relocate WSL swap file location.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-config

Improve this answer

2 Comments

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.
This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post; instead, provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker. - From Review
1

Just for reference for anyone finding this question, as of now (June 2023):

  1. The export-import method fails on Windows for images larger than 8 GB. It's a bug in the underlying tar implementation.

  2. Fortunately, there is a --vhd switch for wsl that one can use for export and import. Even more, there is a wsl --import-in-place command that is useful when one has large volumes.

  3. Although moving the wsl .vhdx files to another location works from the wsl point of view, Docker Desktop still has problems with it. After it makes changes to "docker-data", e.g., the (smaller) distro\ext4.vhdx file, Docker Desktop finally deletes this volume and even a backup copy at the old (%APPDATA%\Docker\wsl\distro) location, and pops an error window.

All in all, I second the mklink method on Windows as 1. it's the least hassle, 2. it's working.

Improve this answer

Comments

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.