Directories used by the IDE to store settings, caches, plugins and logs

Pascal, yes, you can remove these folders if you don't plan to run the old IDE versions.

Aw crap, I totally overlooked the ~. The files are there as you say.

What if the .<PRODUCT><VERSION> directory doesn't exist? I get an error at startup (created a ticket in YouTrack), but I can't find that directory.  Intellij crashes at startup, just right after the splash screen.

Today I use the latest version of PhpStorm (7.0  .WebIde70)

and I have old big directories .WebIde50,.WebIde60. .

Can I safely delete these two directories.

Just to add, I am using Mac OS Mavericks and I don't find a single one of the directories you claim above that I should find. 

Barclay Dunn, yes, this information is actual for IntelliJ IDEA 11.1.5. Make sure to look under your home directory. Finder may hide these directories by default, show hidden files via cmd+shift+. (dot) can help to find them. Note that ~ stands for /Users/<user>.

Matt, please submit a ticket to support with idea.log attached (https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/entries/23352446).

This document is outdated, settings for 2020.1 are now inside ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/<productName><productVersion>

It looks like you are affected by this bug: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-217511.

On macos, plugins seem to be in 

    ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/IDEA-U/ch-[012]/[build-number]/IntelliJ IDEA.app.plugins/

There is no 

    ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea2022.2/plugins

folder at all.

Look under the user home directory.

IDE remembers the last folder where you have created a project using the wizard. Next time you create the project, the same folder will be suggested.

I use Intellij 11.1.5 and I can't find these directories either. Is this information still current for version 11? This is very frustrating. I get an error at startup but cannot find logs, preferences in these locations.

Due to this Bug in the JDK on Windows System.getProperty("user.home") is NOT always:

<SYSTEM DRIVE>\Users<USER ACCOUNT NAME>.<PRODUCT><VERSION>

Instead the JDK uses the parent folder of the "Desktop" folder from a registry key.

See: http://bugs.java.com/view_bug.do?bug_id=4787931

Yes! This! Thank you for this page. I changed my JDK in IntelliJ so that I could use JavaFX. Then I tried to switch it back, and got stopped on the splash screen with no movement and dumped threads. After a few uninstall and reinstall and fruitless searches for all the configs to do a default install I finally found this site and deleted all the folders from the MacOS that were in this locations. I can finally get back into the software that I need to build software. 

Use Help | Edit Custom VM Options to create this file automatically from the IDE.

Where do pycharm and IDEA store the configuration for the currently used theme? I found a file color.scheme.xml in ~/.config/JetBrains/.../, but changing it seems to have no effect.

(I want to change the theme externally with a script to sync it with the system color scheme on Linux).

Adam Pycharm

I've updated the document with the examples. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for the feedback.

Remarkable.  A document titled "Directories used by ...."  that fails to list any directory locations.

Hi my intelij idea is not working I have a valid JDK and JRE installed and have a java_home variable the system variables and when I try open idea it says Failed to load jvm if you have a java installation please  define a JAVA_HOME variable. Pls help

I spent the day on understanding an issue with the startup of Intellij IDEA, version 2019.2.3 delivered by Arch Linux. During my research I came across this article stating that IDEA just uses one folder in users‘ home directories. In fact this is only partially valid.
At the first startup Intellij also creates files in ~/.local and ~/.java.

Finally I managed to nail the problem to the file prefs.xml containing a Jetbrains.UserIdOnMachine. It is created successfully at the first start of Intellij when I‘m logged in into the dev workstation locally. If I connect remotely via SSH and X Forwarding Intellij crashes during first startup while showing the splash screen.

So the workaround is to do the first startup locally at the machine.

Anyway this is not really satisfactory. Could someone shed some light on this please. Any help appreciated. Thank you.

I can't find IntelliJIdea directories on my mac, macOS Mojave Version 10.14.3

Can someone help me please? 

I feel like maybe your documentation that says that, in MacOS, preferences are in ~/Library/Preferences/<PRODUCT><VERSION> is out of date. Our system administrator here at our school told us that PyCharm was trying to open, instead, /Users/<ACCT> to get to the preferences. We have a modified system configuration on our Macs where $HOME (and therefore "~") is mapped to a different home directory. PyCharm crashed as a result. Our sys admin had to go in and edit something in a config file to point it to $HOME instead of /Users/<ACCT>. Then things went fine.

Just thought you should know.

This directory is created on the first start. If IDE cannot start, you will not see it. I've replied to your other comments in the separate forum threads. This help topic is unrelated to your problem.

Just to be clear, I ran find ~/.PyCharm2019.1/ -iname "*log*" -ls to find the log file, which is at 
/home/jeffs/.PyCharm2019.1/system/log/idea.log

did you checked the parent folders? 

you need to look into the `IntelliJIdeaYYYY.Q` folder. (`Y`ear and `Q`uarter)

For my version `2024.2` all the folders are in place but with the `IntelliJIdea2024.2`

I accidentally set the 'Appearance' font to 111 (was trying for 11) just now. Yikes!

Seemed obvious that DataGrip would have XML configs somewhere - thankfully this article pointed me in the right direction.

Search the XML files for '111', discover that 'other.xml' has the Appearance settings... Problem solved.

Sounds like run-of-the-mill incompetence (and it kinda was), but it unfolded logically: here's how.

For whatever reason, the font size for Custom Fonts defaulted to 1 - W.T.actual.F.?

The default of 1 was how this hilarity was set in motion.

I changed the Appearance font (to 'Assistant') and hit 'Apply' - didn't notice that the font size box said '1'.

So now I'm working with insanely small text.

I couldn't see shît, but the mouse pointer was in the font size box, so I double-clicked (to select all)... typed '11' and clicked 'Apply'.

Guess what... double-clicking hadn't selected-all, so I wound up implementing a font size of 111.

Turns out: once you do that, you're cooked.

Anyhow... terrific IDE suite (I have the lot - but I mostly use PyCharm, DataGrip, WebStorm and PHPStorm). Worth every penny - even when I do something as stupid as what I just did...

~ stands for /Users/<userName>. If you type cd ~ in the Terminal, you'll be navigated to the home directory.

When you install IntelliJ without admin privileges, it installs at User level. So the config directory structure is as follows:

~/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIdea2018.3 (Not at System Level) this is Wrong
/Users/<userName>/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIdea2018.3 (This is Right)
/Users/<userName>/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIdea2019.1 (This is Right)

Just in case this helps anyone else:

I was following these instructions and it wasn't working. the problem was that I had just installed 2018.3 and it was asking me if I wanted to import from 2018.2 - I was doing this and I was still seeing the default config.

The problem was that the config I had been using was being pulled in from 2018.1.

So I had to delete the 2018.3 and the 2018.2 folders, so that when I relaunched it asked me if I wanted to import from 2018.1.