Where Does Bottles Store Bottles and Runners?
Bottles data directory on Linux with bottles, runners, dxvk and temp folders.
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Bottles keeps everything under its XDG data directory: each bottle as a mini Windows prefix, plus shared runners, compatibility layers and component caches. A bottle folder behaves like a portable Wine prefix with extra metadata.
Runners download once and share across bottles, which is why the folder balloons. Back up individual bottle folders to move games without redownloading runtimes.
Where Bottles stores this, by platform
~/.local/share/bottles
Holds bottles with one subfolder per environment, plus runners, dxvk, vkd3d and temp component caches. Flatpak installs relocate under ~/.var/app/com.usebottles.bottles instead. Copy a bottle folder with Bottles closed to migrate one game.
Frequently asked questions
How do I back up one Bottles game?
Copy its folder from bottles inside the directory above. Shared runners stay behind, so reinstall Bottles first on the new machine.
Why is the Bottles folder so large?
Runners, Wine builds and versioned components accumulate per bottle. Remove unused runners from preferences and delete retired bottles.
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