Directories used by the IDE

By default, IntelliJ IDEA stores user-specific files for each IDE instance (configuration, caches, plugins, logs, and so on) in the user's home directory. However, you can change the location for storing those files, if necessary.

Change the location of IDE directories

You can move the default IDE directories, for example, if the user profile drive runs out of space or it is located on a slow disk, if the home directory is encrypted (slowing down the IDE) or is located on a network drive, if you want to create a portable installation or exclude caches from home directory backups, and so on.

From the main menu, select Help | Edit Custom Properties.
Set the property that corresponds to the necessary directory:
Property
Path to
idea.config.path
Configuration directory
idea.system.path
System directory
idea.plugins.path
Plugins directory
idea.log.path
Logs directory
Specify paths with forward slashes /, including Windows paths (for example, C:/idea/system).
You can insert any other properties as variables. For example, use ${user.home} (standard Java system property) to specify paths relative to the user's home directory:
idea.config.path=${user.home}/MyIdeaConfiguration
After you restart IntelliJ IDEA, it will use the new location of the corresponding directory.

Property	Path to
`idea.config.path`	Configuration directory
`idea.system.path`	System directory
`idea.plugins.path`	Plugins directory
`idea.log.path`	Logs directory

Clean up old IDE directories

Every time you install a new major version of IntelliJ IDEA, it uses a new set of IDE directories and automatically deletes the caches and logs directories for older versions of the IDE that have not been updated in the last 180 days. The configuration and plugins directories will remain forever, unless you remove them manually.

From the main menu, select Help | Delete Leftover IDE Directories…
In the Delete Leftover IDE Storage Directories dialog, select the versions of the IDE that you are not planning to use and click Delete.

Configuration directory

The IntelliJ IDEA configuration directory contains user-defined IDE settings, such as keymaps, color schemes, custom VM options, platform properties, and so on.

Syntax: %APPDATA%\JetBrains\<product><version>
Example: C:\Users\JohnS\AppData\Roaming\JetBrains\IntelliJIdea2021.2

Syntax: ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/<product><version>
Example: ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea2021.2

Syntax: ~/.config/JetBrains/<product><version>
Example: ~/.config/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea2021.2

You can change the location of the IntelliJ IDEA configuration directory using the idea.config.path property.

To share your personal IDE settings, copy the files from the configuration directory to the corresponding folders on another IntelliJ IDEA installation. Make sure that IntelliJ IDEA is not running to avoid erasing the copied files when you shut down the IDE. Depending on which settings you modified, the IntelliJ IDEA configuration directory can contain the following subfolders:

Directory	User settings
codestyles	Customized code style schemes
colors	Customized editor color and font schemes
fileTemplates	User-defined file templates
filetypes	User-defined file types
inspection	Code inspection profiles
keymaps	Customized keyboard shortcuts
options	Various options, for example, feature usage statistics and macros
scratches	Scratch files and buffers
templates	User-defined live templates
tools	Configuration files for user-defined external tools
shelf	Shelved changes

System directory

The IntelliJ IDEA system directory contains caches and local history files.

Syntax: %LOCALAPPDATA%\JetBrains\<product><version>
Example: C:\Users\JohnS\AppData\Local\JetBrains\IntelliJIdea2021.2

Syntax: ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains/<product><version>
Example: ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea2021.2

Syntax: ~/.cache/JetBrains/<product><version>
Example: ~/.cache/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea2021.2

You can change the location of the IntelliJ IDEA system directory using the idea.system.path property.

Plugins directory

The IntelliJ IDEA plugins directory contains user-installed plugins.

Syntax: %APPDATA%\JetBrains\<product><version>\plugins
Example: C:\Users\JohnS\AppData\Roaming\JetBrains\IntelliJIdea2021.2\plugins

Syntax: ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/<product><version>/plugins
Example: ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea2021.2/plugins

Syntax: ~/.local/share/JetBrains/<product><version>
Example: ~/.local/share/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea2021.2

You can change the location of the IntelliJ IDEA plugins directory using the idea.plugins.path property.

Logs directory

The IntelliJ IDEA logs directory contains product logs and thread dumps.

Syntax: %LOCALAPPDATA%\JetBrains\<product><version>\log
Example: C:\Users\JohnS\AppData\Local\JetBrains\IntelliJIdea2021.2\log

Syntax: ~/Library/Logs/JetBrains/<product><version>
Example: ~/Library/Logs/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea2021.2

Syntax: ~/.cache/JetBrains/<product><version>/log
Example: ~/.cache/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea2021.2/log

You can change the location of the IntelliJ IDEA logs directory using the idea.log.path property.

Last modified: 02 August 2022