Where Does Rancher Desktop Store Data?
Rancher Desktop stores app configuration on the host and container images, volumes, and Kubernetes state inside a managed VM. Factory Reset clears most VM data while host folders and snapshots may remain.
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Rancher Desktop runs Kubernetes and container runtimes inside a virtual machine. On macOS and Linux that VM uses Lima. On Windows it uses WSL distributions named rancher-desktop and rancher-desktop-data.
Host folders hold settings, logs, caches, and snapshots. Container volumes and image stores live inside the VM filesystem and are reached with rdctl shell or through the WSL network path on Windows.
Where Rancher Desktop stores this, by platform
~/Library/Application Support/rancher-desktop
Primary host data folder. Contains configuration, Lima VM definition, snapshots under the snapshots subfolder, and image cache. Container volumes for dockerd live at /var/lib/docker/volumes inside the VM. Containerd volumes live under /var/lib/nerdctl/dbb19c5e/volumes/<namespace>. Replace <namespace> with the containerd namespace, commonly default. Use rdctl shell to inspect VM paths.
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\rancher-desktop
Primary host data folder on Windows. Replace <username> with the Windows account name. VM disks live in WSL distributions rancher-desktop and rancher-desktop-data. Docker volumes are browsable at \\wsl$\rancher-desktop-data\var\lib\docker\volumes and containerd volumes under a nerdctl volumes path with <namespace> for the active namespace. Unregister the WSL distributions after Factory Reset for full removal.
~/.local/share/rancher-desktop
Primary host data folder on Linux. Related folders are ~/.config/rancher-desktop for settings, ~/.cache/rancher-desktop for cache, and ~/.rd/bin for command links. Snapshots live under the snapshots subfolder. Container volumes live inside the Lima VM at /var/lib/docker/volumes for dockerd and under /var/lib/nerdctl/dbb19c5e/volumes/<namespace> for containerd. Replace <namespace> with the active namespace.
Frequently asked questions
Where are container volumes stored?
Inside the VM, not in the host home folder. On Windows open the WSL network path for rancher-desktop-data and look under var/lib/docker/volumes or the nerdctl volumes tree. On macOS and Linux open rdctl shell and inspect /var/lib/docker/volumes or the nerdctl volumes tree.
Does uninstall remove all Rancher Desktop data?
No. Uninstall leaves host data and VM disks behind. Run Factory Reset first, then delete the host data folder for the OS and unregister WSL distributions on Windows. Snapshots and image cache require manual deletion if full cleanup is needed.
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