Where are projects stored in Eclipse?

Question

The Project Explorer is able to list all projects in Eclipse. I am wondering where the project information gets stored?

Answer 1

The projects can be found under the .metadata directory of your workspace:

[eclipse-workspace]/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.projects

Each project contains a .location file (in binary format) which presumably tells eclipse where the project is located on the filesystem, if it has been imported.

Answer 2

In Windows, usually C:\Users\%USERNAME%\workspace

Where %USERNAME% is the username given to your computer. eg. john

You can paste the above path in Run(Windows + R) window and it will pick the username automatically for you though.

Answer 3

For Eclipse Kepler SR2 on Windows 7

The easiest way to retrieve general info about a project (e.g., its location), see the following:

1. go to your "Package Explorer" view;
2. right-click on your project top-hierarchy folder;
3. choose "Show In" -> "Properties";

and you'll get the list of properties for that project in the "Properties view". Location of project will be in there.

Answer 4

By default projects in Eclipse are stored under your workspace. You get asked where your workspace is created or which one to open whenever you open Eclipse, but you can configure it to not ask you again.

If you configured Eclipse not to ask again, then you can go to General -> Startup and Shutdown -> Workspaces in your preferences and check "Prompt for workspace on startup".

That page also lists your recently used workspaces (with probably just 1 entry, if you never explicitly specified a different one).

Note that you can also create projects that are located outside of your workspace, by explicitly specifying a separate location per-project.

Answer 5

I used the "Try File -> Switch workspace" suggestion which works but also re-installed Eclipse 0_0

Answer 6

On a Windows PC, you should be able to find your projects under C:\Users\yourname\workspace\. If you're on Linux, it should be under /home/yourname/workspace/.