This post was most recently updated on August 29th, 2024.
4 min read.This article explains where NetSpot Wifi Heatmap software stores its project files. These files contain all of your measurements, pictures, and other files associated with your heatmaps. They’re pretty important, but you don’t get to choose where to store them. And that might be a problem, unless you’re prepared.
This post is an angry tired rant about ASUS, Windows and NetSpot, so if you don’t want to read it all, you can skip the whole “Background”-section, or even ignore everything else and just be informed that NetSpot stores the project files under Application Data.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Rant first.
Background
Some time ago, I got completely fed up with my ASUS AiMesh wifi routers. The coverage was spotty, maintenance cumbersome and speed lackluster, despite me having a fleet of 5 nodes (supposedly) online on every given moment – and a couple of backup devices to replace the ones that need resetting in order to re-pair them to the mesh network.
Not a fantastic experience, all in all. I decided it was time for a change, and switched from ASUS to TP-Link. And for starters, I got a set of 3 WiFi 6E routers.
But in order to be able to place them optimally, I needed a plan. And to plan effectively, I needed a tool I could use to map the current coverage and identify any dead zones.
And identify them I did! I downloaded a tool called NetSpot Wifi Heatmap, and after giving it a go paid for the license (I’m in software business, so I find paying for other people’s apps the right thing to do) and got to heatmapping.
NetSpot creates beautiful heatmaps showing interference, signal strength, Access Point locations and coverages… So even though my license didn’t give me access to all the different measurements, it was helpful. And I spent a couple of afternoons building nice heatmaps of my lot.
But then Windows Update decided to run. And my brand new laptop never recovered. Yet again.
I have no idea how you’re supposed to both keep your Operating System secure and get any work done nowadays. But I digress.
Since this has happened to me multiple times, I was unfazed. I have backups of my important files, and I use OneDrive for my work documents (I give it a hard time for it’s awful reliability for a good reason, but who cares about losing some work documents, right?)
But, alas… NetSpot doesn’t save your project files to your “Documents”. And a machine reinstall, reset, formatting, or any such standard maintenance task on Windows will destroy your files.
This was a nasty surprise. I made 3 separate heatmaps of about 0.75 hectares of ground. My house has 3 floors and I have 3 buildings I mapped in addition to the yard. So I had a lot of data to lose.
At least I could compare the coverage first with ASUS and then with 2 alternate configurations with the Decos. This work helped me identify that while having just 3 Decos practically matches the coverage of 5 AiMesh devices (and provided speeds multiple times better!), there were 2 dead zones – crucially, one in my mains box and less crucially in the furthest part of my lot, behind a cowshed.
But I still need the coverage for my electricity consumption reader and for my robot lawn mower.
I would’ve had cool heatmaps to show you, but alas…
Anyway. No point crying over spilt milk. I paid my NetSpot license, and I suppose losing a few hours of work and cool heatmaps due to NetSpot’s product design decisions and Microsoft’s shifting right (using users as testers) just serves me right – never blindly trust an app to “do the right thing”, or an operating system to “work”.
Even if NetSpot was saving its project files in a sensible location – like the user’s Documents Library – I’m sure OneDrive would’ve messed up and not synchronized my files. You live and you learn.
Anyway. Enough bitching about NetSpot and Microsoft (although, if you’re reading this, that’s probably what you’re here for)! Time to get to the point.
Where does NetSpot store its project files?
Okay – enough ranting. Where does the application store its project files?
It stores them under the “Roaming” folder under Application Data. One of the worst places to store important files (but not the worst):
%AppData%\Etwok\NetSpot 3\ProjectsSo, for example, C:\users\contosouser\AppData\Roaming\Etwok\NetSpot 3\Projects
This location means that even if you are just “refreshing” or “resetting” your Windows and select “Keep my files”, it’ll nuke your NetSpot projects.
Since NetSpot does not let you change where the project files are stored, you need to use a tool like SyncBack to backup your files – unless you want to export your projects one-by-one any time you make any changes.
He's been a developer from 2004 (starting with PHP and Java), and he's been working on .NET projects, Azure, Office 365, SharePoint and a lot of other stuff. He's also Microsoft MVP for Azure.
This is his personal professional (e.g. professional, but definitely personal) blog.
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