Ollama Custom Model Storage Locations

Take Windows system as an example, the models pulled by Ollama are stored in C disk by default, if you need to pull more than one model, the C disk will be full, which affects the storage space of C disk.

Therefore, this section describes how you can customize the Ollama The location where the model is stored.

Windows (computer)

If no additional action is taken when downloading Ollama, the model will be downloaded by default to the C:\Users\\.ollama\models

If you don't want to put it on the C drive, at this point we create the folder where the custom model will be downloaded and copy the path, such as D:\Ollama\Models

Note: Paths should be created in advance and contain no Chinese characters or spaces.

For different situations, the following strategies can be adopted 👀

Before installing Ollama for the first time, manually set the model download path.

II. Modifying system environment variables (recommended)

III. Migration of existing model documents

I. Manually set the model download path when installing Ollama for the first time.

Customized installation path (on first installation)

. \OllamaSetup.exe /DIR="D:\Ollama\Models"

strike (on the keyboard) InstallAfter that, you can see that the software is installed in the custom path folder, and the model will be downloaded to the custom folder by default.

II. Modifying system environment variables (recommended)

Scenario: It is recommended to change the storage location of the model directly after the installation of Ollama is completed or you want the newly downloaded model to be stored directly in the new location.

1. Setting environment variables

• Win + S → Enter "Environment Variables" → Select "Edit System Environment Variables" → Click the "Environment Variables" button.
• system variable → newly built → Input:
• variable name ::OLLAMA_MODELS
• variable value : Customized paths (e.g. D:\Ollama\Models)

2. reopen Ollama go into effect

• Restart the Ollama service (right-click icon in the taskbar → Quit Ollama(and then reboot)

III. Migration of existing model documents

Downloaded models need to be moved to a new location

1. cessation Ollama step
   Finding the process ID

   tasklist | findstr ollama
   

   Termination of processes

   taskkill /F /IM ollama.exe
   

   

2. Migration model files

• commander-in-chief (military) C:\Users\\.ollama\models folder to a new location (e.g. D:\Ollama\Models) and free up storage space
• ❗ Backup Data : Recommended backups before migration C:\Users\\.ollama file (paper)

3. Creating Environment Variables
   • Setting by Method 2 OLLAMA_MODELS Points to a new path (e.g. D:\Ollama\Models)
4. reopen Ollama go into effect
   Check the list of models, if it shows models that have been downloaded, then the model migration was successful 🎉

   ollama list
   

Linux

On Linux systems, models pulled by Ollama are stored by default in the .ollama/models folder in the user's home directory, usually at the path ~/.ollama/models. If you wish to store the models in a different location, you can do so in several ways.

I. Manually set the model download path

Scenario: First time installation

On Linux systems, Ollama is usually installed via a package manager or a script. If you need to specify the storage path of the model during installation, you can do so by setting an environment variable.

• Setting environment variables: Before installing Ollama, set the OLLAMA_MODELS environment variable that specifies the storage path for the model. Open a terminal and enter the following command:

export OLLAMA_MODELS=/path/to/your/custom/models

commander-in-chief (military) /path/to/your/custom/models Replace the path with the one you want, e.g. /home/username/Ollama/ModelsThe

• Installing Ollama: Follow the normal procedure for installing Ollama. once the installation is complete, the model will be automatically downloaded to the specified custom path.

II. Modifying system environment variables (recommended)

Scenario: After the installation of Ollama is completed, you want to change the storage location of the model directly, or you want to store the newly downloaded model in a new location.

• Setting Environment Variables Edit ~/.bashrc maybe ~/.zshrc file (depending on the shell you are using), add the following:

export OLLAMA_MODELS=/path/to/your/custom/models

Replace /path/to/your/custom/models with the path you want, e.g. /home/username/Ollama/Models.

• Save the file and reload the configuration:

source ~/.bashrc

maybe

source ~/.zshrc

• Restarting the Ollama Service

If Ollama is already started, the service can be restarted with the following command:

ollama quit
ollama start

III. Migration of existing model documents

Scenario: downloaded models need to be migrated to a new location

• Close Ollama
• Migration modeling files: to be ~/.ollama/models folder to a new location (e.g. /home/username/Ollama/Models) and free up storage space:

mv ~/.ollama/models /path/to/your/custom/models

commander-in-chief (military) /path/to/your/custom/models Replace it with your target path.

❗ Backup data: It is recommended to backup the ~/.ollama folder before migration.

• Setting environment variables: follow method 2 OLLAMA_MODELS Pointing to new paths.
• Restart Ollama Service: Start Ollama and check the model list to confirm that the model migration was successful:

ollama start
ollama list

With the above methods, you can flexibly customize the storage location of Ollama models on Linux systems to avoid taking up too much default storage space.

MacOS

The default download model location for Ollama on Mac systems is ~/.ollama/models/blobs (as shown below). As with Windows and Linux, Mac systems are also configured by setting the OLLAMA_MODELS variable to control the model download path, we can set the download path in two ways.

I. Temporary change of download path

utilization launchctl setenv set up OLLAMA_MODELS The effect of this command is temporary, i.e., it is lost after the computer is rebooted or the account is logged off.

launchctl setenv OLLAMA_MODELS "/Users/lta/Desktop/models"

After setting the environment variables you can set the environment variables by using thelaunchctl getenv OLLAMA_MODELSView the current environment variables.

Changing environment variables

Test after changing environment variables

When you want to cancel a previously set variable you can do so by using the launchctl unsetenv OLLAMA_MODELS command to reset.

II. Change the download path permanently

• pass (a bill or inspection etc) nano ~/.zshrc Command Editor ~/.zshrc file
• Add to the file export OLLAMA_MODELS="/Users/lta/Desktop/models" The
• After saving and exiting the editor run source ~/.zshrc to make it effective is sufficient.

Remember to restart Ollama after changing the path.