Stata: Data Analysis and Statistical Software

Where is my personal ado directory?

• If you use Windows, it is probably c:\ado\personal, but it might be someplace else.
• If you use Mac, it is ~/Library/Application Support/Stata/ado/personal. That is, it is the personal folder in the ado folder on the same level as the Stata folder.
• If you use Unix, it is ~/ado/personal (ado/personal in your home directory).

In any case, the way to find out for sure is to enter Stata as you ordinarily do and then type sysdir:

        . sysdir
          ...
        PERSONAL:  c:\ado\personal\
          ...

Your personal ado directory is the one listed next to PERSONAL. There are other folders reported by sysdir that are likely in the same ado folder as your personal ado directory. These other folders correspond to PLUS and OLDPLACE.

OLDPLACE is for users who had a version of Stata prior to Stata 6. This is where they would have stored personal ado-files when they used that older version of Stata.

PLUS is where Stata installs ado-files from the SJ and STB and ado-files that you have downloaded from the Internet through the help system or with the net command.