Can't uninstall Community Edition

When trying to uninstall the IntelliJ Idea Community Edition, I'm running into a weird problem.

The uninstaller reports not to have found the installation folder “probably because it was removed from there”.

But it wasn't, and if I try to start the uninstaller in the bin folder it says exactly the same.

This is happening on a Windows 10 installation, and I'm a bit puzzled by now … anyone got a solution? Thanks in advance.

Oen999 Can you provide a screenshot of the problem?

Hi Jacky,

I include a screenshot, show what happens when I try to start Uninstall.exe in the bin subfolder.

Exactly the same happens when I start Uninstall from the Control Panel, Programs section.

Hope this is good enough … any help is appreciated!

Eric

It seems that you are affected by this issue: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-220717/Cannot-Uninstall-Intellij-2018.3.1-after-installing-2019.2-Uninstall-hasnt-detected-folder-of-...

Workaround 1 (caused by IDEA-330313)

1. Create an empty file named IdeaWin64.dll in <IDE_Installation_folder>/bin (where uninstall.exe is located)
2. Then click uninstall.exe to uninstall it.

Workaround 2 (if workaround 1 doesn't help)

Remove 3 folders manually:

• Installation folder (where uninstall.exe is located)
• Caches folder (C:\Users\yourname\AppData\Local\JetBrains\IdeaIC2023.2)
• Options folder (C:\Users\yourname\AppData\Roaming\JetBrains\IdeaIC2023.2)

Remove the registry key per Microsoft article to get rid of the program in the "Installed programs" list

More info about directories used by the IDE: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/directories-used-by-the-ide-to-store-settings-caches-plugins-and-logs.html#clean-up-old-ide-dirs

Please tell me if it helps.

Hi Jacky,

Your proposed Workaround #1 worked like a charm: it deleted virtually everything.

Whatever remained was no problem, I could easily get rid of that … and now I'm ready for a fresh install.

Thanks for your help, it's much appreciated!

Eric