Running multiple independent IntelliJ IDEA profiles simultaneously
Hello,
I'm trying to create two completely independent IntelliJ IDEA environments on macOS for different use cases (work and personal projects), and I'd like to understand what is officially supported.
My goal is to have:
- Two separate IntelliJ profiles (e.g. "Work" and "Private")
- Independent settings, caches and configuration
- Different installed plugins/extensions per profile
- Different GitHub accounts / Copilot accounts
- Ability to run both instances simultaneously without conflicts
- Ideally separate UI identity (name/icon), though that's secondary
I attempted to use custom idea.properties with separate paths for:
properties idea.config.path=... idea.system.path=... idea.plugins.path=... idea.log.path=...
and launch IntelliJ with different IDEA_PROPERTIES values.
Initially this partially worked, but after updates I started encountering issues such as:
- DirectoryLock$CannotActivateException
- Process ".../idea" is still running and does not respond
- GitHub Copilot/Nitrite database locking between instances (Database is already opened in other process)
Even though logs and system directories appeared separated.
My questions:
1. Is running multiple fully isolated IntelliJ profiles simultaneously officially supported?
2. What is the recommended approach for maintaining independent plugin sets and accounts?
3. Is there an equivalent to browser-style profiles (Chrome/Edge profiles) in JetBrains IDEs?
4. Are separate Toolbox installations, custom launchers, or other mechanisms recommended?
5. Is there documentation describing the supported way to achieve this?
I'm trying to avoid maintaining duplicate IDE installations if possible.
Thanks.
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Hi Wojciech Sielski,
In your case, I'd recommend you install two separate instances of IntelliJ IDEA using Toolbox App:
1. Install JetBrains Toolbox app from https://www.jetbrains.com/toolbox-app/
2. Install IntelliJ IDEA from the Toolbox
3. Install one more instance of IntelliJ IDEA (in Toolbox click on the three-dots icon on the right on the installed instance of IDEA and select “Other versions”, then find the same version of IntelliJ IDEA and click on the three-dots icon on the right of it and select “Install one more instance”):
4. Then you could have multiple installations running with their own settings and plugins. Each IntelliJ IDEA needs a different config folder in order to run them concurrently. You need to go to Settings of your IntelliJ IDEA instances on Toolbox and here set the “Per-tool JVM options file location” and change the
System, config, and logs directoryto a different location.5. After that you can use both instances separately without any conflicts.
Regarding your questions:
1. At the moment, there is no separate profile functionality for this. However, as I described above, you can achieve the same result by running separate IDE instances simultaneously on the same computer under the same user account.
2. With separate IDE directories for IDE instances, you will be able to install plugins independently in each instance.
3. At this moment there is no such functionality, you can create a new feature request using this link and describe it in more details how exactly do you want to see this implemented.
4. The best way – using Toolbox, I have described above.
5. Currently, there is no such documentation available, unfortunately.