iml is an IDEA module file, it can't be opened without a project. Project files are stored in .idea folder, so its parent folder is a project itself and can be opened. Also IDEA has an old-style file-based format, in this case you have *.ipr file instead of .idea folder.
I was confused because on OSX the Idea project does not have the blue idea icon in the "Open project" dialog. That's why I was selecting the .iml file.
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I think the problem was that I was pointing Idea to the .iml file instead of just choosing the directory ...
iml is an IDEA module file, it can't be opened without a project. Project files are stored in .idea folder, so its parent folder is a project itself and can be opened.
Also IDEA has an old-style file-based format, in this case you have *.ipr file instead of .idea folder.
it makes sense of course.
I was confused because on OSX the Idea project does not have the blue idea icon in the "Open project" dialog. That's why I was selecting the .iml file.
thanks