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Epic Games Launcher is the biggest rival to Steam with exclusive games, weekly free games, and no DRM. It is a much-needed game store for the de-monopolization of Steam and brings more competition in the industry, which is always good for the consumer.
Installing games on the Epic Games Launcher is straightforward. If you own the game, you can head to your game library, click on 'Install' under the game you want to install, and it will ask you for the location where you want to store the installation and game files. However, if you want to change the installation location later on without having to re-download and install the game, this guide is for you.
Change install location without re-downloading the game in Epic Games Launcher
This guide is mainly to move the game from one location to another, which could be different storage devices as well, but use this guide if you have the latest game files without having the game installed in the Epic Games Launcher, and you want the application to recognize the files without having to download anything.
Step 1: Rename your game folder
The default installation location for the application is 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Epic Games'
If you have it installed in another location, head over to it, and rename the main folder to something else so that the application does not recognize it anymore. For example, 'Fortnite' can be renamed to 'Fortnite1.'
Step 2: Uninstall from Epic Games Launcher
After renaming the main game folder, launch the Epic Games Launcher, go to your game library, search for the game, and uninstall it by clicking on the three dots next to the game and clicking on uninstall.
This will not delete any game files that you have as the application will not recognize the renamed folder as your game files.
Step 3: Install in a new location
With the previous step, for the launcher, the game has been uninstalled. Now you have to install it again, but in the new location that you prefer. To do this, head over to the game library, search for your game, click on 'Install,' browse the location you want it to be installed in, and click on 'Install.'
Once the download starts, pause it and cancel it. To do so, click on 'Downloads' in the bottom left, click on the pause button, and click on the X button to cancel it. This will not completely cancel the download, but it will stop it. Minimize the Epic Games Launcher for now.
This will create a main folder where the game files are stored, which are recognized by the launcher.
Step 4: Delete the files in the main folder
All the game files inside the new main folder created by the launcher need to be deleted to continue.
Step 5: Move your game files
The game files that you have can be pasted inside the main folder created by the Epic Games Launcher and renamed back to the original name so that the application can recognize them.
Step 6: Resume the download
Now that all the files are in place, open the minimized application and click on 'Resume' under the game in your game library.
The launcher will start verifying all the game files, which will take a few minutes. If there are any missing or outdated files, the application will download and install the latest update of the game without having to download the entirety of the game.
