What is going on with the layout of my PhpStorm?
I've skipped the last couple of PhpStorm updates because there's always something that breaks, but I recently had to update to 2026.2.3 and now my editor panels are all over the place! Panels that are meant to be pinned to the sides just expand to fill the screen if I close the main editor windows. The way the layout reorganises itself makes absolutely no sense. That never used to happen until this update.
Can anyone tell me how I disable whatever this annoying new behaviour is?
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Please try resetting/saving the layout via Windows | Layouts | ...
If that doesn't help though, please share a screencast demonstrating the behavior.
You can upload it here: https://uploads.jetbrains.com and share the upload ID so I'll review that.
Thank you for responding. I've tried saving/reloading the layout and going back to default, but that's made no difference.
I'll try to describe the problem more clearly now I've had more time to understand what's going on.
2026_10_25_83D511mgMT77K46nMPNA2E Shows how I have my layout set up. I have the project structure to the left, and the AI chat (Air) panels to the left. Along the bottom is my terminal. All looking fine.
2026_10_25_2AZaHG3W8WbWDpwo3u57Bf shows what happens when I close all editor windows though. The right-hand AI panels stretch across the screen and the terminal is stretched top-to-bottom, but squashed between the project view and AI panels.
Prior to installing this version, the layout remained as it was set up, with the empty editor space left blank and the tool panels staying in place at the sides.
For some additional context, if I disable Air and go back to using the AI Assistant tool window, I have the stable layout as was in the previous PhpStorm version. So, I guess this is just a problem with running Air in a tool window.
2026_10_25_rPhJYJHYoauK9GFDfKfuHL shows what I would expect whether using Air or AI Assistant