Terminal in PHPStorm won't remember last working directory?

I have been playing around a bit more. 

The “TerminalArrangementManager” is not written in .idea/workspace.xml at all. If present, it's removed at app exit. 

If I open the terminals from mouse right click > Open In > Terminal, the state is remembered after a restart. But I can't find where this setting is saved. In all .idea directory, there is no entry. 

I managed to get it working in IntelliJ IDEA 2024.3 (Ultimate Edition), Build #IU-243.21565.193, built on November 13, 2024 with the help of your post and the screenshot in the thread you linked to.

Procedure:

1. Open .idea/workspace.xml under your projects root directory
2. Search for “ProjectId”, you should find an entry looking something like <component name="ProjectId" id="2o2HQyFrTvGWGkJFmI59uAzcRmR" />
3. Open your IntelliJ settings directory (official guide)
4. Open the workspace sub-directory in the settings directory above, path on Windows would be C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\JetBrains\<IntelliJIdeaSomeVersion>\workspace
5. Open the xml file with the same name as the ProjectId above, which is 2o2HQyFrTvGWGkJFmI59uAzcRmR.xml in my case.
6. CLOSE INTELLIJ
7. Look for the "TerminalArrangementManager" component in the xml file above, which should look something like <component name="TerminalArrangementManager">
8. Add currentWorkingDirectory="$PROJECT_DIR$/your/desired/starting/directory" to each TerminalTabState entry, which should look something like <TerminalTabState tabName="Artifacts" userDefinedTabTitle="true" currentWorkingDirectory="$PROJECT_DIR$/build/artifacts">
9. Save and close the file
10. Start IntelliJ

IntelliJ will now start that terminal tab at the given location every time you start that project.

If you cd to some other location in that terminal, it will “snap back” to the configured location on next startup.

If you close the terminal, the entry will be removed from xml file and you will have to repeat this procedure again.

I hope this will be as helpful to you as it has been to me. Good Luck!