US Trends

where does curse forge store addons for wow classic

CurseForge installs WoW Classic addons directly into your World of Warcraft _classic_ AddOns folder on your PC, not in a hidden app-only location.

Quick Scoop

For WoW Classic (including Era, Hardcore, and seasonal servers), your addons live in this path on Windows by default:

  • C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\_classic_\Interface\AddOns

On macOS, it’s the same folder structure inside the WoW install:

  • World of Warcraft/_classic_/Interface/AddOns

Every addon CurseForge installs for Classic is just a folder inside AddOns with the addon’s name (for example, WeakAuras, Details, Questie).

Where CurseForge Puts WoW Classic Addons

CurseForge doesn’t use a special internal stash for addon files once they’re installed. It simply downloads and unpacks them into the standard WoW Classic addon directory:

World of Warcraft ➜ _classic_ ➜ Interface ➜ AddOns

Key points:

  • Addons for Retail go to: World of Warcraft/_retail_/Interface/AddOns
  • Addons for Classic go to: World of Warcraft/_classic_/Interface/AddOns
  • Inside that AddOns folder, each addon is its own directory containing .toc, .lua, and other files.

If you browse that folder, you’ll literally see all the addons that CurseForge has installed for your Classic client.

How To Find The Folder Step-by-Step

If you’re not sure where your WoW Classic install is (especially with modern Battle.net paths), you can track it down like this.

Method 1 – Via File Explorer (Windows)

  1. Open File Explorer.
  2. Search for World of Warcraft and right-click the folder → “Open file location”.
  1. From the WoW root folder, open _classic_.
  1. Go to Interface → AddOns.
  1. All your CurseForge-installed Classic addons will be there as separate folders.

Method 2 – Using the CurseForge App

CurseForge can also help you locate the game:

  1. Open the CurseForge app.
  2. Select World of Warcraft in the games list.
  1. Click the menu and choose Scan computer for games so it detects your WoW installs.
  1. Use the dropdown near the top-right (next to Play/search) and select your Classic installation (often labeled “World of Warcraft 2” or “WoW 3” depending on setup).
  1. Any addon you install while Classic is selected will go straight into the _classic_/Interface/AddOns folder.

Moving Addons Between PCs Or Installs

Players often ask where CurseForge “stores” addons so they can copy them to another machine. The good news: you don’t need CurseForge itself for this.

  • On the old PC , open:
    World of Warcraft/_classic_/Interface/AddOns
  • Copy the entire AddOns folder (or only the addons you care about) to a USB drive or cloud storage.
  • On the new PC , place those folders into the same directory:
    World of Warcraft/_classic_/Interface/AddOns
  • When you install CurseForge on the new machine and have it scan for WoW, it will detect those addons automatically.

Some players even copy the whole Interface folder to preserve UI layouts and profiles across computers.

Classic vs Retail vs Other Versions

One common confusion in forum threads is that people look in the retail folder and think CurseForge “lost” their Classic addons. In reality, each WoW branch uses its own AddOns directory.

Here’s a quick reference:

[7] [10][7]

[6][4] [6][10]
Game version Addon folder path Notes
Retail (Dragonflight / modern) World of Warcraft/retail/Interface/AddOns Used for current live game UI addons.
Classic Era / Hardcore / Seasonal World of Warcraft/classic/Interface/AddOns Where CurseForge stores Classic addons once installed.
Wrath / other Classic expansions Separate Classic-based folders but same Interface/AddOns structure Selected via game-version dropdown in CurseForge or on the site.
In the CurseForge desktop app and website, you often need to use a **game version dropdown** to pick Classic or specific Classic expansions when browsing addons. That affects which client folder they’re installed to.

Forum Talk & Alternatives (Trending Context)

Community discussions in recent years have highlighted a few extra points around Classic addons:

  • Some players prefer WowUp or other managers over CurseForge/Overwolf, mostly due to privacy concerns.
  • Others still manually download from CurseForge.com and unzip straight into _classic_/Interface/AddOns without using any manager.
  • You’ll also see mentions of GitHub, Wago, and other sites as alternative addon sources, but they still end up in the same AddOns folder in the end.

Regardless of tool or website, the destination for WoW Classic addons remains the _classic_/Interface/AddOns directory, which you control on your local machine.

TL;DR

  • CurseForge stores WoW Classic addons in:
    World of Warcraft/_classic_/Interface/AddOns on your PC.
  • Each addon is a folder inside AddOns, so you can view, back up, or delete them directly.
  • Use CurseForge’s “scan for games” and Classic dropdown to make sure it’s targeting the Classic client, but the files always end up in that same folder.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.