Developers working with Android Studio often encounter storage issues caused by the emulator’s default location. If your C: drive is running out of space due to large system images and emulator snapshots, it’s time to change the default emulator storage path. In this guide, we’ll walk through how to move the emulator files to another drive, clean up unnecessary data, and improve your development workflow.
Why Move the Emulator Storage?
Android Emulator uses virtual devices (AVDs) that can take up several gigabytes of space—especially when multiple system images and snapshots are used. By default, these are stored on the system drive, which can quickly lead to disk space warnings and sluggish performance.
Steps to Change the Emulator Storage Location
1. Set a New Environment Variable
To move your AVDs to another drive:
- Close Android Studio completely.
- Set the
ANDROID_SDK_HOMEenvironment variable to a new location.
On Windows:
- Press
Win + S, search for Environment Variables - Click Edit the system environment variables
- Click Environment Variables
- Under User variables, click New and enter:
- Variable name:
ANDROID_SDK_HOME - Variable value:
D:\AndroidAVD(or any path you prefer)
- Variable name:
- Click OK to save.
🔁 When you restart Android Studio, it will create a
.androiddirectory in the new path. This will become the default location for all AVD files.
2. Verify or Move Existing AVDs
If you already have emulators created, they won’t move automatically. You can either:
- Recreate your AVDs in Android Studio, or
- Manually move
.android\avdfrom the old path (usuallyC:\Users\<YourName>\.android\avd) to the newANDROID_SDK_HOMEpath.
Make sure you also move related configuration files if needed.
3. Clean Up Old Emulator Files
To reclaim space:
- Open the AVD Manager in Android Studio
- Click the dropdown on each emulator > Cold Boot Now (to avoid restoring from large snapshots)
- Delete any emulators you no longer use
- Navigate to the AVD directory and remove large
.imgfiles or unnecessary snapshots
You can also disable Quick Boot in AVD settings if you don’t need fast resume, which saves disk space over time.
Bonus Tips to Optimize Emulator Performance
- Use x86_64 images with hardware acceleration (Intel HAXM or WHPX)
- Avoid installing unnecessary Google APIs unless your app depends on them
- Regularly delete unused system images via the SDK Manager
Useful Official Links
Final Thoughts
Freeing up your system drive by relocating the emulator directory not only boosts performance but also keeps your development environment organized. By taking control of where emulator data lives, you’ll avoid future space issues and maintain a smooth workflow.
Always test your setup after making changes to ensure everything works correctly with your new configuration.