[Bug]: Setting Alternate Download Model Path

[blakemccawe]

App Version

0.8.35

Expected Behavior

Configuring an alternate model download path to an external drive should allow downloading.

Actual Behavior

Model fails to download with cancelled error.
Code is failing on

desktop/src/models/DownloadManager.ts

Line 130 in 4d1ec49

log.error(`Save path ${localSavePath} is not in models directory ${this.modelsDirectory}`);

Steps to Reproduce

Added custom config to extra_models_config.yaml

# ComfyUI extra_model_paths.yaml for win32
comfyui_desktop:
  base_path: C:\Users\Me\Documents\ComfyUI
  custom_nodes: custom_nodes/

desktop_extensions:
  custom_nodes: C:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Programs\ComfyUI\resources\ComfyUI\custom_nodes

custom_config:
  is_default: "true"
  base_path: D:\ComfyUI
  download_model_base: models
  checkpoints: models/checkpoints
  text_encoders: models/text_encoders
  vae: models/vae
  loras: models/loras
  controlnet: models/controlnet
  clip_vision: models/clip_vision
  gligen: models/gligen
  upscale_models: models/upscale_models
  embeddings: models/embeddings
  diffusion_models: models/diffusion_models

• Clicking download model from with the desktop UI
• Download errors
• Check main.log for error

Debug Logs

Save path D:\ComfyUI\models\vae\ae.safetensors is not in models directory C:\Users\Me\Documents\ComfyUI\models
Download progress [ae.safetensors]: 0, status: error, message: Save path is not in models directory

Browser Logs

No response

Settings JSON

No response

Other

No response

┆Issue is synchronized with this Notion page by Unito

[dosubot]

Hi @blakemccawe! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the desktop team.

This is a limitation in how the DownloadManager currently works. The extra_models_config.yaml configures where ComfyUI searches for existing models, but the DownloadManager validates downloads against a hardcoded {basePath}/models directory — in your case C:\Users\Me\Documents\ComfyUI\models [1]. It doesn't consult extra_models_config.yaml for download path validation [2], so your D:\ComfyUI\models path fails the containment check.

Workarounds:

1. Reinstall with D: as the base path — PR Reallow non default drive #1408 enabled non-default drive support [3], so you should be able to install ComfyUI Desktop with D:\ComfyUI as the base path. This makes D:\ComfyUI\models the validated download directory.
2. Download to the default path, then move — Let models download to C:\Users\Me\Documents\ComfyUI\models, then manually move them to D:\ComfyUI\models. Your extra_models_config.yaml will ensure ComfyUI still finds them there.

This does seem like a gap worth addressing — ideally the DownloadManager would respect paths configured in extra_models_config.yaml (with appropriate security validation) rather than only allowing the hardcoded base path.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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