IntelliJ standalone instance does not update to new version, just opens web page
Answered
In my company we use customized standalone instances of IntelliJ IDEA. We usually update these via “Help → Check for Updates”. In the end, this usually results in a dialog like this:
When pressing “Update and Restart”, Idea exits, runs the updater and everything is fine.
On some computers though, the following dialog appears:
The difference is that the “Update and Restart” button is missing and there is a “Download” button instead. When pressing this button, Idea opens an external web browser showing an IntelliJ Idea download page.
Why does this happen?
And what is the proper way to update standalone instances where “Update and Restart” is not offered?
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Patch updates may be not available between all the versions.
If there is no patch update available, you will need to download the IDE and install it manually or use https://www.jetbrains.com/toolbox-app/ for the seamless updates.
The JetBrains ToolBox and the IntelliJ installer do not recognize our installation, as it is a standalone installation (created from the ZIP package provided by JetBrains) and as it uses different folders for storing the settings than the standard installation.
What do you mean by “install it manually”? Take the ZIP package of the newer version and overwrite the application files of the installed version?
IDE needs to be installed from Toolbox to support automatic updates by Toolbox.
> What do you mean by “install it manually”? Take the ZIP package of the newer version and overwrite the application files of the installed version?
Yes. Make sure to delete all the previous files before unpacking. Unpacking on top of the previous version can break the IDE.
> IDE needs to be installed from Toolbox to support automatic updates by Toolbox.
I know that, but our customized installation uses different paths for configuration, system, plugins and logs which are set via the idea.properties file ("idea.config.path", “idea.system.path”, etc.) . Can you also apply these modifications to a version installed via the Toolbox and then still maintain it will the Toolbox?
> Yes. Make sure to delete all the previous files before unpacking. Unpacking on top of the previous version can break the IDE.
Wow, it is great to hear that this is possible as it opens up a new way to update when the patch updater is not available. And this way of updating produces the same result as the patch update? The patch updater does not do anything more than this?
> Wow, it is great to hear that this is possible as it opens up a new way to update when the patch updater is not available. And this way of updating produces the same result as the patch update? The patch updater does not do anything more than this?
Yes.
> Can you also apply these modifications to a version installed via the Toolbox and then still maintain it will the Toolbox?
It should not matter how the app is installed if you do not modify the files inside the installation directory and do it per https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/207240985.