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Someone referred me to the chaindata folder to troubleshoot a problem I am having with Ethereum-Wallet/Mist. How can I find it?

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4 Answers 4

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geth (used in the Ethereum Wallet) saves its internal states for the main network in the chaindata directory. You can find it in the:

  • ~/.ethereum on Linux
  • ~/Library/Ethereum on OS X
  • ~/AppData/Roaming/Ethereum on Windows

In these directories, there are:

  • chaindata: production blockchain
  • testnet: test blockchain
  • keystore: your keys
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  • For OSX there are two library folders. You will need to enable hidden folders to fine the Library referenced above which is found in HD/Users/{your name}/Library and is a hidden folder
    – Albert Renshaw
    Dec 3, 2017 at 4:42
  • To view hidden folders run this in terminal defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES then relaunch finder (option+control click finder icon and select relaunch)
    – Albert Renshaw
    Dec 3, 2017 at 4:43
  • On mac open finder and press Cmd+Shift+G then you can directly navigate to the path ~/Library/Ethereum
    – Albert Renshaw
    Apr 8, 2020 at 5:45
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When you first launch Ethereum-Wallet it will show the splash screen. Shortly after the splash screen will show a LAUNCH APPLICTION button. Click this button to see the full UI. If you are fully synced already it may skip straight to the full UI

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Once that is open go to the Accounts menu > Backup sub-menu > Accounts menu-item.

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The UI for your file explorer will differ by OS, but you should see a folder that contains folders like this, in particular it should contain a chaindata folder:

enter image description here

Side-note: While you are here you should backup the keystore folder. Details about this can be found at How do I backup my ether accounts?. Be sure to save your passwords as well!

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  • We also emphasize that for each file in keystore, you also need to backup your passwords, ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/108/…
    – eth ♦
    Jun 26, 2016 at 22:11
  • 1
    Edited to link to that question and mention saving password.
    – Micah Zoltu
    Jun 26, 2016 at 22:14
  • How does this answer relates to the actual question? Surely one of those has been edited, I need to downvote in this case. #offtopic
    – Mars Robertson
    Nov 7, 2017 at 6:12
  • The question was how do I find chaindata folder in must. This is a direct answer to that. I'm not sure why you believe it isn't?
    – Micah Zoltu
    Nov 7, 2017 at 16:44
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On Mac OSX or GNU Linux, simply open a terminal and search for your chaindata using the find commandline tool:

find ~ -type d -name 'chaindata'

Where the first parameter ~ tells to look into your $HOME directory and all subfolders. Type d is for directories only.

A possible result looks like that:

/home/user/.ethereum-dev-private-testnet/chaindata
/home/user/.ethereum-consensys-public-testnet/testnet/chaindata
/home/user/.ethereum-fast/chaindata
/home/user/.ethereum-ethdev-berlin-testnet/chaindata
/home/user/.ethereum/chaindata

As you can see, I have multiple blockchains on my computer.

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0

On an Ubuntu system in a terminal/ CLI you can use:

locate chaindata
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