There are several ways to open an existing Unreal Engine project, depending on where it is located and the version of Unreal Engine it was created with.
Opening Projects from the Epic Games Launcher
In the Epic Games Launcher, click Unreal Engine on the left navigation, then click Library at the top of the Launcher. You will see a list of all Unreal Engine projects on your local machine.
If you copied a project from another computer or from the Internet, the project will not appear in this list until you have opened it locally at least once. Refer to the Opening Projects From Disk section on this page to learn more.
My Projects section of the Epic Games Launcher. Click the image for full size.
Double-click any project thumbnail to open that project.
The Launcher displays the following information for each Project:
- Project name
- Project thumbnail
- Unreal Engine version that the project is compatible with
Right-clicking a project's thumbnail in the Launcher brings up a context menu with the following options:
Option | Description |
---|---|
Open | Opens the project in the version of Unreal Engine that it is compatible with. |
Show in folder | Opens the project folder in a new Windows Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS) window. |
Create shortcut | Creates a shortcut to the project on the desktop. |
Clone | Creates an exact copy of the project. You can specify the name and location of the new project. |
Delete | Permanently deletes the project. The project files are not moved to the Recycle Bin, like they would be if you deleted the project folder from Windows Explorer or Finder. If you accidentally delete a project using this option, you will not be able to recover it. |
Opening Projects from the Project Browser
When you launch any version of Unreal Engine, the Project Browser displays and opens the Recent Projects panel by default. Much like the projects list in the Epic Games Launcher, this section displays all the Unreal Engine projects on your disk.
If you copied a project from another computer or from the Internet, the project will not appear in this list until you have opened it locally at least once. Refer to the Opening Projects From Disk section on this page to learn more.
Project Browser in Unreal Engine 5. Click the image for full size.
Double-click any project thumbnail to open that project. Alternatively, click the project to select it, then click Open.
The Launcher displays the following information for each Project:
- Project name
- Project thumbnail
- Unreal Engine version that the project is compatible with
Right-clicking a project's thumbnail in the Project Browser brings up a context menu with an option to open your project folder in a Windows Explorer or Finder window.
Enable the Always load last project on startup checkbox in the bottom-left corner of the Project Browser to have Unreal Engine 5 always open the last project you worked on when you launch the engine.
Opening Projects from Unreal Engine
In Unreal Engine, from the main menu, go to File > Open Project. This opens a window that displays a list of local projects, similar to the Project Browser.
Opening a project from Unreal Engine. Click the image for full size.
To open a project, either:
- Select the project from the list, then click Open.
- Double-click the project thumbnail.
If the project you want to open for isn't in the list, click Browse, then browse to the project folder and open the (ProjectName).uproject
file.
Opening a project with a different version of Unreal Engine than the one it was created in can lead to data corruption and data loss. It is recommended to open a copy of the project to preserve the original.
Opening Projects From Disk
If you copied a project from another computer or from the Internet, the project will not appear in this list until you have opened it locally at least once.
To open a project from disk, follow these steps:
-
Make sure you have installed the Unreal Engine version that the project was created with.
-
Navigate to the project's folder on disk.
-
Double-click the
(ProjectName).uproject
file. This file is located directly inside your project's folder.

In this example, you would double-click the MyProject.uproject file.
If you don't have the version of Unreal Engine that the project was created with, you will see a pop-up window asking you to select which version of Unreal Engine to open the project with.

Select an Unreal Engine version from the drop-down, or click the ellipsis (...) button to browse to an Unreal Engine executable on your disk, then click OK.
Opening a project with a different version of Unreal Engine than the one it was created in can lead to data corruption and data loss. It is recommended to open a copy of the project to preserve the original.