Amazon recently released the official Prime Video app for Windows 11/10, and it is now available via the Windows Store. In addition to browsing and watching videos on offer, the Amazon Prime Video app offers subscribers an option to download videos for offline viewing.
According to the app, an hour of good-quality video takes about 0.5 GB of space. The same one-hour video can take about 2.4 GB when the quality is set to the best.
Where does the Amazon Prime Video app save downloaded videos?
The current version of the app saves all downloaded movies and TV shows to the following folder:
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Packages\AmazonVideo.PrimeVideo_pwbj9vvecjh7j\ LocalState\Downloads
In the above path, “C” is the drive where Windows 10 is installed or where the Prime Video app is installed. “UserName” is your user account name. Please note that you need to configure the File Explorer to show hidden items to navigate to the above path.
The downloaded videos are saved in MP4 format. However, they cannot be opened with media players. That is, only the Prime Video app can open them.
Can we change the Amazon Prime Video download location?
If you often download movies for offline viewing using the Prime Video app, you might want to change the default download location, as downloaded movies can consume GBs of disk space.
Unfortunately, the current version of the Amazon Prime Video app does not offer an option to change the default download folder. The same applies to the Netflix app, as well. However, we cannot change the Netflix download location using the ‘move’ feature (see how to move installed apps in Windows 10) offered by Windows 10.
Sadly, this does not work for Amazon Prime Video. If you try to move the Amazon Prime Video to a different drive, you get the following error message.
Besides that, while installing the app from the Store, it requires to be installed on the drive where Windows 10 is installed (this is the second way to change the Netflix download location).
So, as of now, there is no proper workaround available to change the default download location of Amazon Prime Video.
As a last resort, we tried creating a symbolic link to the Amazon Prime Video app. This method also did not work for us, as the app failed to launch after that.
So, for now, there is no good way to change the Amazon Prime Video download location.
How to delete a downloaded video in Prime Video
To delete a downloaded movie or TV show, do the following:
Step 1: Launch the Prime Video app.
Step 2: On the left pane, click Downloads to view all downloaded videos.
Step 3: To delete a video, click on the three dots icon next to the video title and then click the Delete download option.
Don says
My Hard drive will be full to put a bunch of movies on. How can I move them to another drive after I purchase more movies?
Richard Kutsera says
Well I do not have this directory after downloading a whole season of a show. There is now “Downloads” in “LocalState” at all. What now?
Jacinto says
I don’t see the point of this post if you cannot move your movie files to a different place like iTunes or Plex to safekeep. I hate Amazon and that’s why I don’t buy many movies from them, because it is a license to view but it is not an ownership of the digital copy. If amazon choose to close your account like they had done to some people who purchased books, and all were gone just with a click is bunkers. I am trying to start my own digital movie collection network, so i dont need to get the dvds out all the time. but i really though this will help me and it didnt..
GPntv says
I didn’t have the download option in the app, so I had to add the Download folder in the directory myself. It works perfectly fine now.
Paul says
If there is no way of changing the download folder why have a button marked “Change storage location” in settings? Mind you, doesn’t work on my Win11 Surface.
Lancer says
If anyone still requires a fix for this, I found that after installing Amazon Prime Video in the usual default location (usually on C:), navigate to your Apps list in Windows ‘Settings’ and simply click the ‘Move’ option right by the app’s listing and choose your desired secondary / external drive from the dropdown. Works perfectly and doesn’t change the default location for future apps either. Looks like it works for any app and is an easy workaround for a specific app that requires a boatload of file download space.
James Mooney says
My C drive is almost full so I put movies on an external drive. Idiot Amazon is making that impossible. Also, the Fire Tablet stinks. Their rotten browser won’t import passwords – even from a HTML file. The sites I visit most have long, obscure passwords with special characters. Copying them over by hand is insane. And they also force you to have apps on the homepage you Never use, but can’t delete. The Fire Tablet is just too damn proprietary.
Jay McGrath says
That’s wonderful but the prime video app keeps crashing when I play a downloaded video. I get error code 7010. it would be good if I could play the downloaded movie in another player. assholes
christian says
@Dick Pluim
You said that you found a working workaround to move the PrimeVideo App to another disk, but I don’t understand exactly how to do to get the same result: On my PC, now Windows installed the PrimeVideo App in my C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Packages\AmazonVideo.PrimeVideo_pwbj9vvecjh7j
Instead for example I would have the App on the drive E:\Amazon\
Also I would the App to download the Videos on the drive E:
So I’m wondering culd you tell me what must I do to move the PrimeVideo App on the drive E: keeping it perfectly running as when it’s native installed in C: and also making it save the downloads in E: to play them flawless after ???
matias says
thx for the explain
map1964 says
I tried this but can’t get it to work. If I download Prime Video app and then use C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Local\Packages>mklink /J AmazonVideo.PrimeVideo_pwbj9vvecjh7j
d:\Amazon\AmazonVideo.PrimeVideo_pwbj9vvecjh7j command, it says the file (AmazonVideo.PrimeVideo_pwbj9vvecjh7j) already exists.
If I use the command and then try to install the app, it fails on install.
How did you (Dick & MX83) get it to work?
In hope!.
[email protected] says
Very good article. It’s a shame Amazon Video didn’t have an easy way in their setting to change the download location.
MX83 says
This article is comprehensive but defo update to modify the last bit about the symbolic links.
You cant redirect the downloads folder on its own, but redirecting the entire folder for the app works as Dick said works perfectly.
I’m actually considering doing this for a few other Win10 apps now also.
Lexx says
Linking per above at AmazonVideo.PrimeVideo_pwbj9vvecjh7j point didn’t work for me. Prime fails to start when the link is present. Tried a couple of different ways (before logging in vs. after logging in, before first download vs. after first download, etc.) uninstalling and re-installing between each new try. Silly limit, there are lots of media PC with very small boot drives. Prime Video for Windows 10 is new, hopefully they will deal with this quickly.
admin says
Glad to know that Symbolic link workaround worked for you.
Dick Pluim says
Great read, and always try things out. Before reading that the symbolic link trick didn’t work I was already trying this by making a symbolic link to the Downloads-directory. That indeed didn’t work. Then I tried:
C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Local\Packages>mklink /J AmazonVideo.PrimeVideo_pwbj9vvecjh7j
d:\Amazon\AmazonVideo.PrimeVideo_pwbj9vvecjh7j
and that did the trick. App can be started and it’s downloading, and I see the free space on drive D decreasing.