Modyfying Library (Twine/Stories) folder location

Question

Hello,

I'm using Twine 2.1.3 downloaded version on Windows 10.

By default, my projects are locally saved in the following folder :
C:\Users\Me\Documents\Twine\Stories
This is indeed the folder opened when I click on Twine > Show Library in Twine client.

Today I moved my whole Documents folder onto an external hard drive (for personal reasons).
Here is where the Stories folder is now located :
D:\Documents\Twine\Stories

However, when I next opened Twine client, my story projects were not displayed in the Story List (home window).
Fortunately, I archived all my projects so I imported everything back from my most recent TwineArchive.html.
But when I work on a story, any change I make is no longer saved locally unless I archive the whole thing.

In other words, closing and opening again the client without archiving first will cause :
1. No story at all is displayed in the Story List (home window)
2. No local save is made of any previous change in my stories

In addition, clicking on Twine > Show Library now does nothing, no win explorer window opens.

Uninstalling/reinstalling Twine doesn't help, nor does tweaking my web browsers settings.
Of course I tried re-creating C:\Users\Me\Documents\Twine\Stories and this does work but it doesn't suit me.

So my question is :
How to make Twine Client save projects on the fly in a folder I see fit ?
(or at least the proper Documents folder once it's been moved from its default location)

Thank you for the attention,

Max.

Answer 1

This is a known (Issue #340) limitation of the install-able release of the Twine 2 application for Window, which unfortunately assumes that the Virtual (My) Documents folder in Windows is always a child folder of a location determined by a set of System Environment Variable related to the current Windows User.

The method I personally use to relocate the application's Stories folder (whose name and location can be different for someone not using the English language) to elsewhere on my machine, is to replace that folder with a Symbolic Link. (There is an article on the How-to Geek web-site that explains how to create these links.)

WARNING: This method may not work correctly for a removable drive, due to the Symbolic Link possibly breaking if that drive is removed. If the link does break then you will need to do step 5 each time you remote the drive.

The steps I used were:

1. Run the install-able release of the Twine 2 application (it creates that Stories folder the first time the application is run)

2, Use the Twine > Show Library menu items to determine the location that Stories folder, as previously noted the name and location of this folder can be different based on the User's language.

3. Close down the Twine 2 application, it is important that that Stories folder is not being accessed by the application.

4. Move that Stories folder to where ever you want it to be located.

5. Create a Symbolic Link (with the same name as that Stories folder) within the old location of that Stories folder that references the new location of that Stories folder.

eg. If the old location of the folder was C:\Users\<windows user>\Documents\Twine\Stories then I would create a Symbolic Link named Stories within the C:\Users\<windows user>\Documents\Twine folder.

6. Run the install-able release of the Twine 2 application and it show now use the new location of that Stories folder to store your Story Project HTML files.

Comments

Thank you very much greyelf.