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Open, move, and close projects

Last modified: 13 January 2025

Open and reopen projects

Open a project

  • Click Open on the Welcome screen.

  • In the main menu, go to File and click Open or Recent Projects if you have worked with the project lately.

    Alternatively, you can open projects from the command line.

tip

If you are opening a project for the first time, and this project has several configurations (for example Eclipse and Maven), the IDE will ask you which configuration to load. For more information about opening a project correctly, refer to Open a project (simple import).

Open projects in a new or the same window

By default, when you launch the second or any subsequent project, the IDE asks you how you want to open it: in a new window or in the same window. You can configure the default behavior for such cases in the settings:

  1. In the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S) , select Appearance & Behavior | System Settings.

  2. In the Project section, select the necessary Open project in option:

    • New window: open every project in a separate window.

    • Current window: close the current project and open a new one in the same window.

    • Ask: show a dialog with actions to choose from.

    the System Settings page in Settings

  3. Apply the changes and close the dialog.

Always reopen projects

If you quit the IDE having multiple opened projects, they all will be reopened the next time you launch IntelliJ IDEA. If you don't want to automatically reopen your projects, you can change this behavior in the settings:

  1. In the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S) , select Appearance & Behavior | System Settings.

  2. In the Project section, clear the Reopen projects on startup checkbox.

  3. Apply the changes and close the dialog.

Merge project windows (macOS)

With default macOS settings, tabs will be lost after you restart the IDE, and projects will open in separate windows. If you would like the IDE to reopen projects in tabs, configure your macOS to always use tabs when opening documents.

If you work with multiple projects, it's likely that you have a long list of recent projects on the Welcome screen. IntelliJ IDEA provides several options that can help navigate this list in a more convenient way.

You can use the search bar to search for projects, join several recent projects in a group, or set a custom icon for each project.

Group projects

Groups make navigation simpler and help you logically organize your recent projects.

After that, hover over the group and use the icon to show the menu from which you can open all projects in the group at once by clicking All Projects in Group. You can also ungroup the projects, move them to another group, and remove them from the list of recent projects at once.

Projects grouped on the Welcome screen

Change the project icon

For each project, you can configure a custom icon so that you can quickly find the necessary project on the Welcome screen. Your custom icon should have the SVG format.

Switch between projects

If you have several opened projects at the same time, you can switch between them using the following options:

  • Switch to the next project window: CtrlAlt0] (Window | Next Project Window)

  • Switch to the previous project window: CtrlAlt0[ (Window | Previous Project Window)

Alternatively, open the Window menu and select the project to which you want to switch.

Change project location

Move a project to another location

  1. In the Project tool window Alt01, right-click the project directory and select Refactor | Move directory (F6).

  2. In the dialog that opens, specify a new location for the project and click Refactor.

    Moving a project to another location

Change the default location for projects

  1. In the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S) , select Appearance & Behavior | System Settings.

  2. In the Default project directory field, specify the path to the folder in which you want to store your projects.

  3. Apply the changes and close the dialog.

    Changing the default location for projects

Close projects

If you need to close only one project, you can either close the project window or select File | Close Project from the main menu.

If you work with multiple projects, use the following actions to close many projects at once:

Close all projects

  • In the main menu, go to File | Close All Projects.

    This action closes all projects that are currently opened in IntelliJ IDEA.

Close all but the current project

  • In the main menu, go to File | Close Other Projects.

    This action closes all opened projects except the current one.

See also

Reference