Directories used by the IDE
Last modified: 10 August 2022By 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.
note
The default location of the IDE directories has changed starting from IntelliJ IDEA version 2020.1. If you had a previous version, new installations will import configuration from the old directories. For information about the location of the default directories in previous IDE versions, see the corresponding help version, for example: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/2019.3/tuning-the-ide.html#default-dirs.
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
idea.system.path
idea.plugins.path
idea.log.path
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.
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.
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 | |
keymaps | Customized keyboard shortcuts |
options | Various options, for example, feature usage statistics and macros |
scratches | |
templates | User-defined live templates |
tools | Configuration files for user-defined external tools |
shelf |
tip
If you are using the Settings Repository plugin to synchronize IDE settings, these subfolders will be under settingsRepository in the configuration directory.
If you are using the IDE Settings Sync plugin to synchronize IDE settings, these subfolders will be under jba_config in the configuration directory.
System directory
The IntelliJ IDEA system directory contains caches and local history files.
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.
You can change the location of the IntelliJ IDEA plugins directory using the idea.plugins.path property.
note
If you installed IntelliJ IDEA via the Toolbox App, the plugins directory will be located in the installation directory. To find the installation directory, open the settings of the IDE instance in the Toolbox App, expand Configuration and look for the Install location field. There should be a directory that ends with .plugins.
You can also see the location of the plugins directory in the VM options file. From the main menu, select Help | Edit Custom VM Options. For example, the option can look like this:
-Didea.plugins.path=/Users/jsmith/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/IDEA-U/ch-2/212.5080.55/IntelliJ IDEA.app.plugins
Logs directory
The IntelliJ IDEA logs directory contains product logs and thread dumps.
You can change the location of the IntelliJ IDEA logs directory using the idea.log.path property.
tip
You can open the location of the logs directory using the corresponding Help menu action: Show Log in Explorer on Windows or Show Log in Finder on macOS.
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