Question: I created a folder in order for it to be the main work directory meaning all the files I create go there, and files I read will be from there.
For some reason after I created the folder and I'm trying to set it as the working directory I get this message:

```
Error in setwd("~/") : cannot change working directory  

```

When I try to create files they are saved somewhere different and I get an error when trying to load them. I used the `scan` function and got:

```
Error in file(file, "r") : cannot open the connection

```

In addition: Warning message:

```
In file(file, "r") : cannot open file 'ff': No such file or directory

```

Answer: 
The command `setwd("~/")` should set your working directory to your home directory. You might be experiencing problems because the OS you are using does not recognise `"~/"` as your home directory: this might be because of the OS, or it might be because of not having set that as your home directory elsewhere.

As you have tagged the post using RStudio:

* In the bottom right window move the tab over to 'files'.
* Navigate through there to whichever folder you were planning to use as your working directory.
* Under 'more' click 'set as working directory'

You will now have set the folder as your working directory. Use the command `getwd()` to get the working directory as it is now set, and save that as a variable string at the top of your script. Then use `setwd` with that string as the argument, so that each time you run the script you use the same directory.

For example at the top of my script I would have:

```
work_dir <- "C:/Users/john.smith/Documents"
setwd(work_dir)

```
I just had this error message happen. When searching for why, I figured out that there's a related issue that can occur if you're not paying attention - the same error occurs if the directory you are trying to move into does not exist.