Changing the Directory of Jupyter Notebook: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

4 min readMay 21, 2023

Introduction: In this tutorial, we will explore how to change the directory of Jupyter Notebook, a popular tool for interactive data analysis and development. By default, Jupyter Notebook opens in a specific directory, but there are times when you may want to work in a different directory to organize your files or access specific datasets. Follow along as we learn the simple steps to change the directory in Jupyter Notebook.

1. Understanding the Default Directory

Before we begin, let’s briefly discuss the default directory of Jupyter Notebook. When you launch Jupyter Notebook, it opens in the directory from where you executed the command or launched the application. This default directory serves as the starting point for creating, saving, and accessing your Jupyter Notebook files.

2. Changing the Directory Using the File System

To change the default directory of Jupyter Notebook using the file system, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open your preferred file explorer or file manager.

Step 2: Navigate to the desired directory where you want Jupyter Notebook to open by default. You can browse through folders and drives until you reach the desired location.

Step 3: Right-click in the folder and select “Open in Terminal” or “Open in Command Prompt,” depending on your operating system. This will open a terminal window directly in the selected folder.

Step 4: In the terminal window, type the command jupyter notebook and hit Enter.

Step 5: Jupyter Notebook will launch, and the default directory will be set to the folder you opened the terminal in.

3. Changing the Directory Using the Command Line

To change the directory of Jupyter Notebook using the command line, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open your preferred command line interface (e.g., Command Prompt, Terminal).

Step 2: Navigate to the desired directory using the cd command. For example, to change to a directory named "data_science" you would use:

cd path/to/data_science

Step 3: Once you are in the desired directory, launch Jupyter Notebook by running the following command:

4. Changing the Directory Using the Jupyter Notebook Interface

To change the directory using the Jupyter Notebook interface, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Jupyter Notebook by launching it through your preferred method.

Step 2: In the Jupyter Notebook interface, navigate to the directory tree on the left-hand side.

Step 3: Click on the desired directory where you want to create or access notebooks. Then click on New followed by Python 3 to open a new notebook file.

5. Verifying the Directory Change

After changing the directory, it’s essential to verify that the change was successful. To confirm the directory change, follow these steps:

Step 1: Create a new notebook or open an existing one.

Step 2: Use the %pwd magic command within a code cell to print the current working directory. The output will display the current directory path.

Step 3: Compare the displayed path with the directory you intended to switch to. If they match, the directory change was successful.

6. Conclusion

In this tutorial, we explored three methods for changing the directory of Jupyter Notebook. By using either the file system, the command line or the Jupyter Notebook interface, you can easily switch to a different directory to organize your work or access specific files. Remember to verify the directory change using the %pwd magic command. Now you're ready to work in your preferred directory with Jupyter Notebook!

Feel free to experiment and explore other features of Jupyter Notebook to enhance your data analysis and development workflow. Happy coding!