Where your data lives

C5 keeps everything on your computer. This page explains what sits where, how to move it, and what C5 will refuse to do with it.

The four kinds of files #

By default all four sit under one folder:

~/.growther                      macOS and Linux
%USERPROFILE%\.growther          Windows (configuration)
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Growther\C5       Windows (databases and keys on new installs)

New Windows installs keep the databases and keys under %LOCALAPPDATA% on purpose: that folder never travels with a roaming profile, so signing in on another machine cannot carry an encrypted database away from the key that opens it.

See it in Settings #

Open Settings › Storage › Configuration & Data. The card shows:

• Source: whether this device chose the location (Local) or your organisation did (Managed by your organization). The Local tile also carries a badge naming how the location was decided — Default, Pointer, Environment or Policy. A policy that names only the databases or the key set, and leaves the rest of the home to this device, still counts as managed: the card says which parts your organisation set.
• Where things live: one row per kind of file, with the path, a badge that says whether it is on this device, on a network folder, or in a synced folder, and a dot that goes amber when something is not where it should be.
• Actions: change the local folder, verify the layout, roll back a move, or remove a retired copy after a move.

If C5 is running from an older location than the one now configured, a banner says so until you restart.

Move C5 to another local disk #

Use the card's Change local folder button, or the command line:

growther home migrate --to /Volumes/Work/growther

Both run the same procedure:

1. Validate the new folder: it must be on a local disk, writable, not inside a protected folder, and have room for one and a half times your current data.
2. Review the plan: what moves, what stays, and what you can prune (old encrypted backup copies can add up to gigabytes).
3. Confirm. In Settings, type move. At the command line, answer y — or pass --yes, which is required if you are scripting it, because C5 refuses to schedule a relocation from a non-interactive shell without it. C5 then stops, copies everything with a verified checkpoint of every database, checks each copy against your key before anything is switched, and restarts from the new folder.

The old folder is kept as a retired copy with its secrets shredded, so you can Roll back from the card at any time until you choose Remove retired copy.

To see the current layout or check a folder first:

growther home show
growther home probe /Volumes/Work/growther

probe answers for the use you have in mind, and the answers differ — a share that is refused for the databases is perfectly fine for backups:

growther home probe /Volumes/Work/growther --intent=home           # the default
growther home probe //fileserver/c5 --intent=backup
growther home probe //fileserver/c5 --intent=networkConfig
growther home probe /Volumes/Work/growther --intent=location

The move itself takes options worth knowing before you run it:

C5 refuses a folder that already holds a file the move would replace, and names the files. Pick an empty folder, or move those aside first. Merging into a folder that already holds unrelated subfolders is fine.

If a move or a roll back is interrupted — the machine loses power part way through, or a rename fails — the next start deals with it, and your data is never left half-moved. What it does depends on how far the job got:

• Interrupted while copying or verifying, which is most of the elapsed time: C5 discards the partial copy and starts normally from the old folder. Run the move again. It does not resume, because the old folder may have been written to since.
• Interrupted after the switch: the next start finishes the job.

Either way nothing needs repairing by hand. To abandon a job instead of letting the next start deal with it, run growther home cancel — or growther home cancel --force for one that keeps failing at every start.

What C5 refuses, and why #

Databases are never placed on a network folder, a mapped drive, a roaming profile, or a synced folder such as OneDrive, Dropbox or iCloud Drive. C5 checks the filesystem at every start and refuses to run if the databases are on one of those. The reason is not caution for its own sake: the database engine keeps part of its state in shared memory that only one computer can see, so two computers opening the same folder would corrupt it, and a sync client can copy a half-written file over a good one.

On a locked-down Windows image the check itself can be blocked from running. C5 then decides from what it can see without help — a network path, a OneDrive folder, a synced root — and starts with a warning rather than refusing. A folder that positively looks like any of those is still refused.

If a configured folder is unreachable when C5 starts, it stops with a message naming the folder and who set it, rather than silently starting an empty second copy somewhere else.

Two computers never share one folder. The lock C5 takes on the data folder now records which machine holds it. A second machine pointed at the same folder refuses to start and tells you which machine has it. If a machine has been rebuilt and a stale lock is in the way:

growther lock status
growther lock break --confirm

Backups and network storage #

Network storage is welcome for what belongs there: encrypted backups, exported audit evidence, and the policy file your organisation may publish.

The backup folder under Settings › Storage is for a folder on this computer — it must sit inside your home directory, and a UNC or network path is refused there. Anything off this machine is set under Settings › Enterprise › Enterprise storage, which takes a network folder, an Azure Blob container or an S3 bucket. A network folder is accepted only if an administrator has first added its parent to the allowed enterprise roots on that same screen; with no roots listed, every network target is refused.

Check the layout from the command line #

growther doctor
growther doctor --json

The report includes Home source, Data dir filesystem, Secrets location and Lock host. The --json form also writes doctor-status.json into the C5 folder for device management tools to read.