Since the release of Patch 2.4, Blizzard has recommended to players that they delete the contents of their Addons and WTF folders to ease the transition to the changes made with the new content patch. I've had a few people ask me how this is done, so here it is, folks; how to start from scratch.First off, it might help to understand where your addons live and how your preferences are stored. The guts of your addons live in the Addons directory, the working parts so to speak. When you configure your addons, these preferences are stored in the WTF directory, which also provides a home for your macros, video settings and any other preferences you are able to change. In order to truly "start from scratch", you will need to remove all traces of your addons and their associated settings. This can present some frustration to those of you who don't want to reconfigure all of your settings, but it is part of the price paid for patches.
Keep reading to find out how you can do some spring cleaning in your World of Warcraft directory...There are two directories (also known as folders) that you will want to consider emptying in order to completely start over with your addons. If you have a default install of World of Warcraft, you can follow this default path:
- Open your Start menu
- Select My Computer
- Open the Local Disk (C:) directory
- Open the Program Files directory
- Find your World of Warcraft directory and open it
- Locate the Interface directory and open it
- Locate and open your Addons directory
- Take everything in that directory and drag it into your Recycle Bin
- Open the WTF directory
- Drag all the contents of this folder to the Recycle Bin
For you Mac users, the file structure is the same, and getting to them is only slightly different. Here are steps for the Mac player:
- Open a Finder window
- Open your Applications directory
- Open the World of Warcraft directory
- Open the Interface directory (The WTF folder is also located here)
- In the Interface directory, open the Addons folder
- Empty the contents of the Addon folder to the Trash
A word about the WTF directory, if more than one person plays on the machine, you will find their settings in there as well. In the WTF folder is a folder called Account. Within this folder are separate folders for each World of Warcraft account that has ever been played on the machine. You can delete the contents of these individually to reset the preferences for individual accounts. A step further, into the Account Name folder (whatever your World of Warcraft login is), you will find folders for each realm you play on, which hold folders for each character played on a given realm. As you can see, you can go as deep as you want to delete settings down to a character-by-character basis (or even each addon's saved preferences). I don't bother with this, as a fresh start can be refreshing, but do what you please, it's your $15 a month!
Once you've done this, you can start finding updated versions of your addons and perhaps create a new and exciting User Interface! Dismissed!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-29-2008 @ 4:34PM
Arboreous said...
Deleting your WTF is never ever ever necessary. This is like formating your harddrive every time to encounter a software error, sure it will fix the problem but it's an extreme overreation. I use a ton of mods and I've never had to delete my WTF folder.
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3-29-2008 @ 5:23PM
Seamus said...
Uhm, logged into the game recently? Blizzard's opening message explicitly recommends doing just this: delete your WTF folder to avoid having trouble traveling to the Isle of Quel'Danas.
Granted, you lose a lot of stored up history and such. But every house needs a spring cleaning now and again. I'm rebuilding my UI completely from scratch. ;-)
3-29-2008 @ 5:49PM
GryphonStalker said...
I'm always wary of deleting my WTF folder as it takes me a rather long time to get it all back right where I want it.
I only delete it if I actually come across an error.
And I haven't have any trouble traveling to the Isle of Quel'Danas. :D
3-29-2008 @ 7:38PM
Tekkub said...
Blue tells people to delete addons and WTF every patch, and they never warn people that they'll lose all their settings if they do. It'd be much better to reccomend RENAMING and warn of the settings loss.
That being said, clearing the WTF is the fastest way to lsolve many issues, but it should be a last resort.
And unless you're using very poorly written addons, you shouldn't need to do anything beyond tick on "Load outdated addons" and find updates for the small handful that were broken by the patch.
3-29-2008 @ 5:48PM
Xeren said...
How about we take a more moderate stande between the 2 of you?
Clean out yout WTF folder if it's causing you problems. If not, don't.
I have a million macros- i'll delete my wtf folder when it's necessary, as redoing everything will be a gigantic hassle.
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3-29-2008 @ 5:51PM
dcisko said...
My game will lock up whenever I try to hearth back from Quel'danas... I guess this might be because I haven't removed my WTF. But I have a ton of time invested in my UI -- I think I'll live with it. Sigh.
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3-29-2008 @ 7:45PM
lawomous said...
Actually this problem is due to QuestHelper \ Cartographer.
Update to the newest version and it will solve your problem.
3-29-2008 @ 6:38PM
BlackCat said...
I wouldn't delete the whole of the Interface/Addons folder. Make sure to leave the Blizzard UI files there. I'm guessing (never tried myself), but deleting them might cause problems with the ingame interface (as it won't be able to load, because it isn't there).
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3-30-2008 @ 4:16AM
Darwinsfolly said...
Actually you can remove the bliz files they will just reinstall them selves when you run it next have done this many many many... times as I am constantly changing my ui to suit my mood and as for macros if you go into WTF -> Account -> YOURACCOUNTNAME and save the macros-cache file you can delete the WTF folder the just cut and place macros-cache and they are back
3-29-2008 @ 6:55PM
TheMopeSquad said...
Do yourself a favor and grab an error catching addon like swatter or bugsack then when you have problems it tells you exactly whats going on. Its much more practical than deleting all your saved variables when you could just turn a mod off and wait for an update or start using something else.
@dcisko: I believe thats a problem with addons using the "Astrolabe" lib, apparently Gatherer and QuestHelper, and possibly any other addons that set up paths like that. Just update any conspicuous addons and the problem should be fixed.
@BlackCat: If you delete the "blizzardXXX" addons they just get replaced when you start up wow again so theres no harm at all in deleting them.
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3-30-2008 @ 5:08AM
Kik said...
What about the WDB folder in the Cache? I read someplaces that that can cause problems as well. I'm also curious as to what exactly it holds.
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3-30-2008 @ 8:21AM
Nonny said...
Hmph. I haven't had any problems (except a couple minor glitches here and there) since the patch, and I still haven't gotten around to upgrading my mods. Somehow, I don't think deleting the WTF directory is truly that necessary.
That said, just because I'm not having problems doesn't mean others aren't, but I'd try and figure out if the problem was originating with a specific mod before deleting the WTF directory and thus all my settings.
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3-30-2008 @ 9:02AM
Nick said...
Okay, I use this way every once in a while. I run the WoW Repair.exe given with World of Warcraft! It has an option to erase all the data, addons etc for you. Just do that and cancel the scan of all your other files. =].
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3-30-2008 @ 9:49PM
Paminen said...
Do a google search for Wowaceupdater. It's amazing and will fix all your problems in about 5 minutes if you use mostly ace mods.
Also, MoveAnything seems to have completely broken in 2.4. Is there a good replacement to move the default blizzard ui elements (particularly PVP objectives) anywhere I want?
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3-31-2008 @ 10:20AM
stardash said...
I love how people are scared to remove anything. You WTF folder basically holds all of you cvars for your account. Removing it along with all of your addons will set the game back to the way blizzard originally had it. Removing the contents of the folder will not harm or remove anything you need to play wow. If you are looking for a fresh start or have any issues removing these folders is the best way to start. With a major patch like 2.4 where they changed several interface and chat/combat log mechanics removing these files is recommended. Blizzard tells you when you log in to do this, why would they deliberately do something that would cause all of their users issues. People with no knowledge about how something works should really keep their opinions to them selves. I already know people will tell me I am incorrect about this post, but perhaps if you read a little of the documentation that BLIZZARD has put out you may look at things the way they really are.
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4-08-2008 @ 12:49PM
Biff said...
For the most part, I think people are "scared" to delete their folders because they don't want to lose their settings for their mods as well as their macros.
I, for one, have invested much time getting my Bartender, Aloft, Quartz, SCT (God was that a pain to have to set up again), and many other mods, to work and look just the way I want them.
Do I look forward to doing all these things again? Hell no.
4-01-2008 @ 6:23PM
Galana said...
I followed Blizz's directions and deleted my WTF folder, and my Addons. Reloaded updated addons, but my Addon button is completely missing from the Enter World page, so i can't get them going. Also for some reason, i seem to have two interface and two WTF folders. The second set has a numerical sequence following the name. What gives?
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