[Bug Report] Issue with ESP-IDF Installation (EIM-680)

[StuartJames]

System Information

• OS info: OS: Windows 11 (22631) | Architecture: x86_64 | Kernel: 22631
• App Version: 0.10.5

Description

Please describe the issue you encountered:
Installer insist on placing Espressif tools on 'C:' drive even though user has specified a different drive

Steps to Reproduce

1. Just proceed with a custom installation

Expected Behaviour

all installed files on users specified drive

Actual Behaviour

IDF files installed on user specified drive. Compiler tools are installed on drive 'C;' no matter what.

Logs

Please attach logs from the app logs folder.

Additional Information

This is very inconvenient as it takes up space on the system drive which is usually at a premium.

[fcabralpacheco]

What you want requires additional configuration:

https://docs.espressif.com/projects/idf-im-ui/en/latest/faq.html#can-i-install-esp-idf-to-a-custom-location-or-a-different-hard-drive

[Hahihula]

Hi @StuartJames,

Thanks for the report

The installer actually uses multiple installation paths (e.g. for IDF, tools, caches, etc.), and these are initialized with defaults that work for the majority of users. That said, all of these paths can be customized during installation — including placing everything on a completely different drive.

You can find more details here:
https://docs.espressif.com/projects/idf-im-ui/en/latest/faq.html#can-i-install-esp-idf-to-a-custom-location-or-a-different-hard-drive

⚠️ One important caveat:
If you change certain paths — especially the location of the eim_idf.json file — you may currently lose integration with IDEs (such as VS Code). At the moment, IDE integrations don’t support passing a custom path to this file, so they expect it in the default location.

We understand the concern about disk usage on the system drive and are looking into ways to make this behavior clearer and more flexible in future releases.

If you can share logs or your exact path configuration, we can also double-check whether something unexpected is happening in your case

[StuartJames]

Hi Hahilula, Thanks for the detailed reply. I’m still not sure why the tools directory can be explicitly specified in the CLI version but not in the GUI version especially when it takes up 17.6G of disk space. I have a working v6.0 setup at the moment but as I say would like to move tools to my application drive (D:). Hopefully using the CLI I can do this along with a v5.5.3 setup for use with previous projects. Regards, Stuart. From: Hahihula ***@***.***> Sent: 30 March 2026 09:32 To: espressif/idf-im-ui ***@***.***> Cc: Stuart James ***@***.***>; Mention ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [espressif/idf-im-ui] [Bug Report] Issue with ESP-IDF Installation (EIM-680) (Issue #659) <https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/4068385?s=20&v=4> Hahihula left a comment (espressif/idf-im-ui#659) <#659 (comment)> Hi @StuartJames <https://github.com/StuartJames> , Thanks for the report The installer actually uses multiple installation paths (e.g. for IDF, tools, caches, etc.), and these are initialized with defaults that work for the majority of users. That said, all of these paths can be customized during installation — including placing everything on a completely different drive. You can find more details here: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/idf-im-ui/en/latest/faq.html#can-i-install-esp-idf-to-a-custom-location-or-a-different-hard-drive ⚠️ One important caveat: If you change certain paths — especially the location of the eim_idf.json file — you may currently lose integration with IDEs (such as VS Code). At the moment, IDE integrations don’t support passing a custom path to this file, so they expect it in the default location. We understand the concern about disk usage on the system drive and are looking into ways to make this behavior clearer and more flexible in future releases. If you can share logs or your exact path configuration, we can also double-check whether something unexpected is happening in your case — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#659?email_source=notifications&email_token=AB5C6BQLFL2YJMIOA7WJBUT4TIWHDA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTIMJVGMZDEOBZHEZKM4TFMFZW63VHNVSW45DJN5XKKZLWMVXHJLDGN5XXIZLSL5RWY2LDNM#issuecomment-4153228992> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AB5C6BTUYSAM4TQZIULKK4D4TIWHDAVCNFSM6AAAAACXFAHPJ6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHM2DCNJTGIZDQOJZGI> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned. <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AB5C6BQIBY76EBBQDQTFE5T4TIWHDBFCNFSM6AAAAACXFAHPJ6WGG33NNVSW45C7OR4XAZNMJFZXG5LFINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTXXRU7MBJTSMVQXG33OU5WWK3TUNFXW4.gif> Message ID: < ***@***.***> ***@***.***>

[Hahihula]

Hi @StuartJames

Thanks for the follow-up 🙂

You’re absolutely right that the tools directory can take a significant amount of space, and the CLI gives you full control over where everything is placed.

The main reason the GUI doesn’t currently expose the same level of flexibility is that changing the tools location can sometimes lead to suboptimal behavior. For example, if multiple ESP-IDF versions are installed but each uses a different tools directory, we lose the ability to deduplicate shared tools — which can result in large parts of that ~17 GB being duplicated across installations.

Because of that, the GUI is designed to guide users toward a configuration that works well in most cases and avoids these pitfalls. The CLI, on the other hand, exposes full configurability for more advanced use cases like yours.

That said, you don’t actually need to install a separate CLI-only version 🙂 The GUI build already includes full CLI functionality — you can simply run the same binary from PowerShell with parameters and get the same flexibility as the standalone CLI version. The CLI-only build is mainly intended for CI or headless environments.

So your approach (using CLI mode to control the tools location) is absolutely valid 👍

Let us know if you run into any issues with that setup.

[StuartJames]

Hi Hahihula, I have installed both v5.5.3 and v6.0 of the frameworks and all seems to be working well. Thanks for your help. Regards, Stuart. From: Hahihula ***@***.***> Sent: 31 March 2026 07:02 To: espressif/idf-im-ui ***@***.***> Cc: Stuart James ***@***.***>; Mention ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [espressif/idf-im-ui] [Bug Report] Issue with ESP-IDF Installation (EIM-680) (Issue #659) <https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/4068385?s=20&v=4> Hahihula left a comment (espressif/idf-im-ui#659) <#659 (comment)> Hi @StuartJames <https://github.com/StuartJames> Thanks for the follow-up 🙂 You’re absolutely right that the tools directory can take a significant amount of space, and the CLI gives you full control over where everything is placed. The main reason the GUI doesn’t currently expose the same level of flexibility is that changing the tools location can sometimes lead to suboptimal behavior. For example, if multiple ESP-IDF versions are installed but each uses a different tools directory, we lose the ability to deduplicate shared tools — which can result in large parts of that ~17 GB being duplicated across installations. Because of that, the GUI is designed to guide users toward a configuration that works well in most cases and avoids these pitfalls. The CLI, on the other hand, exposes full configurability for more advanced use cases like yours. That said, you don’t actually need to install a separate CLI-only version 🙂 The GUI build already includes full CLI functionality — you can simply run the same binary from PowerShell with parameters and get the same flexibility as the standalone CLI version. The CLI-only build is mainly intended for CI or headless environments. So your approach (using CLI mode to control the tools location) is absolutely valid 👍 Let us know if you run into any issues with that setup. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#659?email_source=notifications&email_token=AB5C6BREPV3OZ2XYPIP35B34TNNORA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTIMJWGAYTGNJYGAZKM4TFMFZW63VHNVSW45DJN5XKKZLWMVXHJLDGN5XXIZLSL5RWY2LDNM#issuecomment-4160135802> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AB5C6BQFE2QXUZJ4AMBQBQL4TNNORAVCNFSM6AAAAACXFAHPJ6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHM2DCNRQGEZTKOBQGI> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned. <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AB5C6BWM5ICE7JB3Q54ATS34TNNORBFCNFSM6AAAAACXFAHPJ6WGG33NNVSW45C7OR4XAZNMJFZXG5LFINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTXX62RHVJTSMVQXG33OU5WWK3TUNFXW4.gif> Message ID: ***@***.***>