Where is the mpv Config File Path on Windows?

When installing the highly customizable mpv media player on Windows, many users quickly discover that it does not automatically create a configuration file during installation. To customize your playback experience, you must manually create an mpv.conf file and place it in the correct directory. This article provides a quick overview of the default paths where mpv searches for its configuration settings on Windows, how to access them, and how to set up your initial configuration file.

Default Configuration File Paths

Depending on how you installed mpv and how you prefer to manage your software, the player looks for its configuration file in two primary locations:

• The Global User Directory (Recommended): C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Roaming\mpv\ This is the standard location for most modern Windows installations. Replacing <YourUsername> with your actual Windows account name will lead you to the folder where mpv expects to find mpv.conf.
• The Portable Directory (Local): C:\path\to\your\mpv\folder\mpv\ If you downloaded a portable build of mpv and extracted it to a custom folder (e.g., C:\Tools\mpv), you can create a folder named mpv directly inside that directory. If mpv detects an mpv.conf file here, it will run in portable mode and ignore the global AppData folder entirely.

How to Find the AppData Folder Quickly

Because the AppData folder is hidden by default in Windows File Explorer, navigating to it manually can be tricky. The fastest way to access the default configuration path is by using the Windows Run command:

1. Press Windows Key + R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog box.
2. Type %APPDATA%\mpv into the field.
3. Click OK or press Enter.

If a folder does not exist at that location, Windows will display an error. In that case, you can simply run %APPDATA%, press Enter, and then manually create a new folder named mpv inside the directory that opens.

Creating Your First mpv.conf File

Once you are inside the correct folder, you can easily create your configuration file using any standard text editor:

1. Right-click inside the mpv folder, select New, and then choose Text Document.
2. Name the file mpv.conf. Ensure that you remove the .txt extension from the end of the filename (you may need to enable “File name extensions” in the Windows File Explorer “View” menu to see this).
3. Open the mpv.conf file in Notepad or another code editor to begin adding your custom hardware acceleration, subtitle preferences, and video quality settings.