How to prevent PhpStorm to save file on exit without prompt ?

I think your idea is wrong (do not save changes to file on exit, but save them somewhere in the project files). I guess you should use Local History instead.

"Do not autosave on exit" is strict "won't fix" from the team.
You can't have tab asterisks back because file in editor is just loaded from disk and has no unsaved changes. It will have no sense.
If you need to preserve change sets over time you should really considering using source control.

Local git repository will provide you with all the features you need. Just install git, do "Version Control|Git Init" and you have nice changesets, chages in editor, diff on each change and file.
As a bonus - a visual history of your actions in git log. Try it, and you'll never work again w/o source control %)

I've learned not to pick up the phone while using the PhpStorm ;).
Actually, you'll have to learn a new way of programming - the IDE knows better when to save a file.
This is really a problem, I've committed unfinished changes twice to the repository, when my boss urged for other fixes. And the web server went down unfortunately.
Apart from this feature, the PhpStorm is the best PHP IDE I've ever used.

I've just registered only to tune in to this discussion. I had the same unpleasant surprise as the OP today while evaluating PHPStorm. Isn't automatic saving on close as the only option rather unusual for an IDE? In fact, I'd consider it a violation of the POLA principle and even dangerous to the integrity of my code. In my workflow, the decision to save should be a concious one, just as the decision to commit.

Is there any specific reason why this policy is forced upon the user, rather than made an approach one can opt out of by unchecking a box? Or is it, perhaps, difficult to implement, breaking another feature? That would be more understandable. But even then: Does the "won't fix" statement still stand?

Cheers,

Michael

Yes, its an essential and mandatory feature of our platform for many years and its not going to change in any foreseeable future.

I think there's a remedy to this, things called "Shelving Changes" and "Local History" - take time to read help on them. Also, look for "Mark modified tabs with asterisk" in options.
Anyway, after a couple of weeks in PHPStorm, I got used to autosave.

Thanks, Szymon, I'll give it a try. Shelving and managing history are things I'd rather do in the VCS, normally, but perhaps I can get the hang of it.

I too consider the lack of an option to 'Not save buffers automatically when closing files/projects' to be a poor design choice. I do understand there are a ton of different strategies for managing code and projects but ultimately i believe the user should have a choice. I've purchased PhpStorm no longer than a week and i've been bitten by this problem over and over again, luckily for me i can always find what was changed or not since i use versioning control on pretty much all of my projects but i still find this behavior counter-intuitive. Personally i wish i had the option to turn autosave off.

Hi, I'm evaluating WebStorm 2.

I registered just to request this "dont auto save on exit" feature.
When a computer user clicks the "save" button, it means s/he wants to save his/her work.
When a computer user closes an application, it means that s/he that is  done with that application. But that doesn't mean that s/he wants to save his/her work.
I'm aware of "Local History" and version control but those feature still doesn't cater to my needs.
Often times, I'm writing experimental and I dont want to save those changes.

Imagine that I'm typing weird things to this forum just to see if the web browser would filter word that begins with "f" or a female canine.
I realized that the web browser did not filter those words and I want to close the web browser because I dont want to post my experiment.
But then, the web browser suddenly auto saves (in this case, auto post) before closing.
I hope you see what I'm trying to picture here.

Why don't you use a versioning system? That's how they work. PHPStorm can save all it wants, but nothing is committed until I tell it to.

Thanx for the prompt reply.
I guess you're right.
I'll just have to add an extra level of consciousness whenever I use a JetBrains product (WebStorm in my case).

I thing I found that is similarly weird: WebStorm automatically doesn't save my work whenever it losses focus. E.g. whenever I refresh the web browser to test my changes.

All in all, i have to do the following:
1.) Backup my javascripts and/or html files before opening them in WebStorm.
2.) During the debugging/designer process, if I like my changes, I have to do step 1 again just to be sure
3.) If I dont like the changes, I'll restore from backup/source safe (version control)

I agree with Arvin. This is pretty close to a deal breaker for me.  Why should PHP Storm decide to handle saving files in a different manner than just about every other application on the planet?  Why stray from what users are used to from every other application they use?  Yes, most of us use source control, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have the capability of deciding when and if we want to save a file.  A good application doesn't force a specific workflow on users, it gives them the choice.  It's a shame, but I guess I'll have to go back to NetBeans.

It may be that a choice to auto save or not would be nice, but I have to admit that after a couple weeks of using phpstorm, I've come to appreciate the auto save behavior.

I can't count the number of times I've refreshed my browser 25 times only to find out the change I was expecting in the browser was not there because I'd forgotten to save a file somewhere. Not a problem with phpstorm.

Besides, what better time for me to learn about versioning strategies! :)

Obviously some people really like to have auto save, and some people really hate it.  So why not give the user the choice?

AGREE absolutely !

My understanding about this after reading about it here in the forum and tracker is that the functionality with the autosave is hardcoded into their main core software that all their products are based from, so it isn't about adding or changing one product but updating their core product which will also impacts ALL their software not just phpStorm. Apparently they don't want this feature messed with in their core product, anyway this is my impression whether it is correct or not I don't know but that is what I get from reading about changing how the autosave works.

I personally find the auto history a godsend because in situations you are talking about, where unfinsihed code is saved to the file or I changed something as a test and royally screw up my code, I just look at the snapshot of the file from before I messed with it and save out the previous version replacing the file I messed up.  I personally don't want to use a versioning system that is based online other than on my own server/hosting account where I CONTROL it and not GIT or whatever. Though I am apparently in the minority as I do not work in teams so I don't need team support or ability to check in and out files etc...   Everyone uses the IDE differently.

I also find the auto save and the CTRL+S feature interesting in that it saves ALL unsaved work in every open file not just the one you currently have the focus on.  I was annoyed at that at first too but with the history feature it actually doesn't matter to me if files are saved automagically or not, I can always go back and get the unchanged version or go back 5 versions if I want or whatever.

Another thing that might help you is to note your files with the TO DO comment and note what you did, what needs to be done.  phpStorm lets you look at these in all your files without opening the files so you can easily see what yet needs to be done in that file or section of your project.

Thanx for the clarification about the fact that the auto save feature is embedded in their core code.
As for me, I've given up using WebStorn (trial version). The auto-save feature is too much to bear.
Right now, I'm still using Visual Studio 2010 (w/ some javascript add-on) for editing, and Firebug (Firefox add-on) for debugging.
For versioning, my team uses Source Safe 2005.

This thread is just becoming too long to ignore this requirement from us (users). I'm myself registered user. I still think this have to be up to user to choose, if he wants to save the code automatically or by himself. So what we really need is the simple checkbox somewhere in options dialog to do this ;). So... wake up guys and listed to your user's base.

Forgive me if I am wrong but my understanding is feature requests are pretty much ignored unless there is a tracker created for the issue.  I know they said this issue wont be changed but possibly if a new request is added to the bug tracker or if there is already an open issue for this if everyone were to vote and comment on it there instead of in the forum they may take into account how many actually want this feature changed and reconsider their position. I don't know if they will or not but having a visual of how many people actually want the auto save to be a user configured option, a check box in settings to turn it on or off etc... may make an impact on the powers to be.

All I know from my brief time as an owner of a license for phpStorm is that feature requests are pretty much ignored in the forum and a tracker needs to be created or updated.  I would do a search in the tracker to see if there already isn't something in there for this and add your vote and comment to it.  My 2 cents on this.

Thanks.

I have made a few mistakes because of this, and its hard to track down sometimes. I dont know but it seems like when users request a feature that is just common sense, the jetbrains team arrogantly discards it, and tells everyone that they have a long experience making ides. That same thing happened when there was a request for autopopup of autocompletion window. At firsat the reason for not implementing it was that its not needed and they had over 10 years experience of making idess, after a lot of votes on this, and a long discussion they finally implemented it, and they were surprised that people wanted the feature. I think the same goes for this. Why on earth would you want to save all your open files on exit. If youve made changes to them, they havent been tested (if you are closing down the ide), because you have not chosen to save the file but changes are made. If you miss that, there will most probably be an error. And using version control to correct that is a timewasting workaround. You should get a prompt when you close the application asking if you want to save the files that been changed, and have the option to choose which. This is a feature in every other editor or ide, and there is a reason for that. This, and inconsistent autocompletion, is why im not gonna use it anymore.

gscmedia wrote:

Why on earth would you want to save all your open files on exit. If youve made changes to them, they havent been tested (if you are closing down the ide), because you have not chosen to save the file but changes are made. If you miss that, there will most probably be an error. And using version control to correct that is a timewasting workaround. You should get a prompt when you close the application asking if you want to save the files that been changed, and have the option to choose which. This is a feature in every other editor or ide, and there is a reason for that.

The exactly the same happened to me. And now imagine you leave for a few days. Then you come back and will try to discover what you made wrong last time. Version control... Ok... but not everyone is using it. The prompt on exit is used by every IDE out there. So you guys think everyone is doing it wrong and just you doing it right. Come on ... Let us users choose if we want to save it automatically on exit or be prompted by IDE. Thats all we need from you.

Hi, guys.

I'm just registered here and I did it for only reason to blame JetBrains team for the ignore-like response on users problems.

About a few hours ago I was going to become a happy PHPStorm user, but the only thing that disturbed me was this autosave on every action. I was very surprised when I didn't find a simple option in a huge options tree to turn it off. And when google helped me to get to this topic I was surprised even more.

Answering "its an essential and mandatory feature of our platform for many years" on a notice about missing setting that causes problems is... hmmmm... extremely strange :) Please, be clever, listen to your customers' requirements and don't refuse to meet them. As for me - I'm not going to use PHPStorm until its developers team become as user-friendly as PHPStorm seems after the first look.

Thumbs Up !

Well, I downloaded and installed the Webstorm in order to evaluate it, first thing I noticed is that it is auto-saving files...

After searching for a solution to disable it, I found this post where they basically say that you have to use Git in order to track changes in files ?!?
Let me say something, I refuse to use Git for each prototype project I may create and keep reverting files to their original state because I want to focus on my work, I don't want to fight the IDE.

So just to raise my voice, I stopped using Webstorm (which is otherwise pretty good) and will not buy it and will also spread this issue around me especially considering the fact that Jetbrains completely ignores the community on this basic request for years and forces upon us its choice. Don't forget, it is we that make you live (or not).

Overall I'm happy to not lose time with it and can spend more time learning another IDE less egocentric.

Good luck to others who are willing to adapt to their IDE and not the other way around.

Cheers.

Have JetBrains added an option to disable the auto-save feature?
If yes, then I'm going to download the trial again to try it.
If no, then no deal

Often I open some files just for inspecting.
Sometimes I alter a line in the wrong file.
With this crazy autosave this causes errors which are hard to find (I use git - but in this case its more than cumbersome)

Maybe your Team finds a solution to help the user in such a case - than I come back.

Not everyone hates it.  Im used to it now and really love the autosave feature.  :).

Not all IDE's have to be the same.  I Love PhpStorm.

Not all IDE's have to be the same.

Yes, sure. Some have to be based on arguable features which you just can't turn off :)

The point is that nothing is wrong in autosave itself. You like it - you use it. The wrong thing is that it's not possible to turn it off if you don't.