What is the default database path for MongoDB?

Question

I got an error about dbpath (/data/db/) does not exist, but /etc/mongodb.conf named it dbpath = /var/lib/mongodb. So, which is the de

Answer 1

The Windows x64 installer shows the a path in the installer UI/wizard.

You can confirm which path it used later, by opening your mongod.cfg file. My mongod.cfg was located here C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\4.0\bin\mongod.cfg (change for your version of MongoDB!

When I opened my mongd.cfg I found this line, showing the default db path:

dbPath: C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\4.0\data

However, this caused an error when trying to run mongod, which was still expecting to find C:\data\db:

2019-05-05T09:32:36.084-0700 I STORAGE [initandlisten] exception in initAndListen: NonExistentPath: Data directory C:\data\db\ not found., terminating

You could pass mongod a --dbpath=... parameter. In my case:

mongod --dbpath="C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\4.0\data"