How to open .DVC files on Windows
To open .DVC files on Windows, if the file is from a DVC project: open it with a text editor (e.g., Notepad/VS Code) to inspect it, then use the DVC tool in a terminal to work with the tracked data (e.g., fetch/checkout as appropriate for your project).
Step-by-step instructions
- If the file is from a DVC project: open it with a text editor (e.g., Notepad/VS Code) to inspect it, then use the DVC tool in a terminal to work with the tracked data (e.g., fetch/checkout as appropriate for your project).
- If it is an IDRISI Vector (DVC) file from a GIS workflow: open it in the GIS application/workflow that produced it (the vendor docs identify it as an IDRISI vector format).
Recommended software
- VS Code
- Notepad++/TextEdit
- jq (CLI)
Alternative methods
- Open .DVC in a browser-based viewer if desktop apps fail.
- Try opening .DVC on Windows with a secondary app to rule out app-specific issues.
- Convert .DVC only with trusted tools when direct opening is not possible.
Common issues
The .DVC file opens as unreadable characters
This often means it is not a DVC metadata text file, but a different .dvc format such as a GIS vector data file (e.g., IDRISI Vector).
- Confirm where the file came from (a DVC repository vs. a GIS workflow) and check for surrounding project files that indicate DVC usage.
- If it is from GIS/IDRISI workflows, open it with the originating/compatible GIS software rather than a text editor.
You can read the .DVC file but the data it references is missing
In DVC projects, the .dvc file is metadata; the actual data may live in remote storage and won’t appear until you fetch/checkout it with DVC.
- Use the DVC tool in the correct project directory to retrieve the tracked artifact according to your project’s DVC setup.
- Make sure you have access to the project’s configured storage/remote used for DVC-tracked data.
Double-clicking does nothing or opens the wrong app
Operating systems don’t always associate .dvc files with a specific program, and the extension is used by more than one format.
- Open the file in a text editor first to determine whether it looks like human-readable metadata (common for DVC).
- If it is a DVC metadata file, keep editing/viewing in a text editor and manage it with the DVC tool rather than relying on file association.
Security note
.dvc files used by DVC are typically human-readable metadata; treat them like configuration files and review changes (especially in shared repos) before using them to pull or reproduce data.