World of Warcraft Forever: How to Install Addons Without the CurseForge App

You do not need the CurseForge desktop app to run addons on World of Warcraft Forever. The whole process is a plain file copy: download the addon as a zip from the web, then place its folder inside the game’s own AddOns directory. The example here uses RareScanner, but the same handful of steps works for any addon you pull from CurseForge.

Quick answer: Download the addon zip from curseforge.com/wow and extract its folder into _forever_\Interface\AddOns inside your World of Warcraft install folder. Then reload the UI in game and make sure the addon is ticked in the AddOn List.

What you need before you start

A web browser to reach the CurseForge WoW addon pages.
The Battle.net launcher, which points you to your game folder.
Windows File Explorer to open the zip and copy files.
The Forever client installed, so the _forever_ folder exists.

All addons on CurseForge are free, so there is no purchase or account link required to grab a zip file manually.

Download the addon zip from CurseForge

Open curseforge.com/wow in your browser. The Browse Addons for World of Warcraft page lets you search by name and filter by category, flavor, and game version.

Search for the addon you want and open its page. In this walkthrough that is RareScanner by Jose M. Gomez.

On the addon page, choose Download file manually instead of Install with CurseForge App. This saves a .zip archive, such as RareScanner_11.0.18.zip, to your computer.

Open the downloaded zip in File Explorer. Inside you should see a single folder named after the addon, for example a RareScanner folder. That folder is the piece you will move into the game.

Find the AddOns folder through Battle.net

In the Battle.net launcher, select World of Warcraft Forever and click the gear or cog icon next to Play. Choose Show in Explorer to jump straight to the game’s install location.

Open World of Warcraft in Explorer and move through _forever_ > Interface > AddOns. For Forever, _forever_ is the client’s version folder; use that folder rather than one belonging to another game version.

On a new installation, _forever_ might hold only the game, without either an Interface or an AddOns directory. If so, create the missing folders: place Interface in _forever_, then put AddOns inside Interface.

Spelling matters here. Both names have to match exactly, capital letters included, or the game won’t treat them as its addon folders.

Drag the addon’s folder out of the open zip window and drop it directly into this AddOns folder. Copy the folder itself, not the zip file. Each addon should end up as its own folder, for example ...\Interface\AddOns\RareScanner.

A folder you unpack by hand sits in AddOns until you delete it, so you keep working addons even without the CurseForge app running in the background.

On a Mac, the game installs to /Applications/World of Warcraft/ by default. The Forever client lives in the _forever_ folder there, right next to the World of Warcraft Launcher.

For a quick route, use Finder: select Go > Go to Folder and type /Applications/World of Warcraft/_forever_/. Open Interface, then AddOns, creating either directory if needed. Put extracted addon folders in AddOns, just as you would on Windows.

Enable the addon in-game and confirm it loaded

Return to World of Warcraft and press Escape to open the Game Menu. Click AddOns to open the AddOn List.

Make sure the addon’s box is checked, then click Reload UI. If the addon does not appear at all, close the game fully and restart it, since new addon folders are only picked up when the game starts.

After the reload, open the AddOn List again. You know it worked when the addon shows in the list as enabled and its in-game features become active.

Which addons actually work on the Forever client

The Forever client runs on a modern engine that hides certain numbers from addon code, described as “secret values.” That changes what an installed addon can do, so it helps to know the limits before you fill your AddOns folder.

Works: Addons for tooltips, vendors, maps, bags, quests, and the interface are supported when they render values supplied by the game.
Does not work: combat-log readers such as damage meters and boss timers, because those values are secret to addons.

World of Warcraft: Forever is live now, but game updates can still change what addons are able to do. Stick with addons that have been updated for the Forever client. If one starts misbehaving after a game update, remove its folder from AddOns and reload. That tells you whether the addon is the cause.