IPython Notebook save location

Just cd to your working folder and then start the IPython notebook server. This way you can be mobile.

If you're using IPython 4.x/Jupyter, run

$ jupyter notebook --generate-config

This will create a file jupyter_notebook_config.py in ~/.jupyter. This file already has a line starting with # c.NotebookApp.notebook_dir=u''.

All you need to do is to uncomment this line and change the value to your desired location, e.g., c.NotebookApp.notebook_dir=u'/home/alice/my_ipython_notebooks'

Yes, you can specify the notebooks location in your profile configuration. Since it's not saving them to the directory where you started the notebook, I assume that you have this option set in your profile. You can find out the the path to the profiles directory by using:

$ ipython locate

Either in your default profile or in the profile you use, edit the ipython_notebook_config.py file and change the lines:

Note: In case you don't have a profile, or the profile folder does not contain the ipython_notebook_config.py file, use ipython profile create.

# The directory to use for notebooks.
c.NotebookManager.notebook_dir = u'/path/to/your/notebooks'

and

# The directory to use for notebooks.
c.FileNotebookManager.notebook_dir = u'/path/to/your/notebooks'

Or just comment them out if you want the notebooks saved in the current directory.

Update (April 11th 2014): in IPython 2.0 the property name in the config file changed, so it's now:

c.NotebookApp.notebook_dir = u'/path/to/your/notebooks'