"Switch frame" plugin opens the new phpstorm instance on the wrong monitor

Just to confirm, are you talking about this plugin?
Link:
https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7138-frame-switcher

Also, what OS & IDE version are you using? In fact, I may try to test the plugin (if my assumption was correct) on one of my installations to check if it behaves the same.

Yes that's it. The one which allows to have multiple instances open of PhpStorm at the same time.

I'm on Windows 10 Pro, with no dedicated graphics card and two Dells 24'' montitors. When I have my first instance of PhpStorm open in monitor labelled 1 on Windows' Screen Settings and I do a Switch Frame, the second instance of PhpStrorm always open in monitor labelled 2 in Windows' Screen Settings.

Just as a test, please disable the Frame Switcher plugin, restart PhpStorm and check how it goes for you there.
I made a pass through the issue tracker and couldn't find reports that were exactly the same, so there's a great chance it's caused by the plugin.

If the behavior persists, please also check how it goes with the default PhpStorm settings.

Made some tests.

Disabled the plugin, restarted PhpStorm, re-enabled the plugin, restarted PhpStorm. The first second instance picked from the Frame Switcher opened correctly in the primary and active monitor (desired), the others all in the secondary monitor (unwanted).

From this point on every test didn't lead to the desired effect of having the multiple instances of PhpStorm opened in the primary and active monitor, all in the secondary. Thanks Murphy!

With the plugin disabled, all instances of PhpStorm open via right click on a folder for example, spawn in the secondary monitor, thanks Murphy. And everytime I have to drag 'em in the primary monitor, the one in front of me.

I believe this should be discussed with the plugin author. Please submit this at https://github.com/krasa/FrameSwitcher/issues

Ok but even with the plugin disabled, PhpStorm never spawns in my primary monitor, neither remembers/uses the last used monitor, always spawns in the secondary monitor.

Typically a Windows app either opens:

a) in the system defined primary monitor (this can be seen in Screen Settings by right clicking the Desktop in Win10) or
b) in the monitor they were last closed

I'm using Frame Switcher plugin for a really long time and got 2 monitors: 1680x1050 (main) & 1920x1080 (secondary), nvidia graphics card, Windows 10 Pro EN. No special scaling (standard 100%).

All projects are getting opened on my main monitor, never on second.

I don't know if it's dued to PhpStorm 2019.3 or the updated version of the plugin, but the issue I reported with this thread seems resolved.

It looks like it came out another issue though: the switch frame popups shows full path to latest project's directories in the recent pane, and it even shows duplicates of them! Eg:

--------------Switch Frame ---------------------

project A

project B

--- Recent ---

c:/projects/project_A

c:/projects/project_A

project C

project D

------------------------------------------------------

fixes: it should stick to project's name and avoid duplicates.

>It looks like it came out another issue though: the switch frame popups shows full path to latest project's directories in the recent pane, and it even shows duplicates of them! Eg:

It's an IDE issue (appeared in 2019.3) -- https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-227980

Frame Switcher plugin works with the same recent project lists as IDE .. and if IDE reports such paths (duplicates and paths instead of names) then plugin will do the same. Waiting for the fix as well.

P.S. By looking at the recent project list (the config file where such info is stored) .. the paths for projects opened in 2019.3 are written differently than 2019.2 did, at very least on Windows (e.g. "D:/Projects/Proejct-1" in 2019.2 vs "D:\Projects\Proejct-1" in 2019.3) -- you can see that in `recentProjectDirectories.xml` config file and may edit it manually if so desired (while IDE is closed, of course)

True, there is a bit of a fuss in those settings with the slashes.

My 2019.3 has something like this:

<option name="lastProjectLocation" value="D:/Sites" />
<option name="recentPaths">
<list>
 <option value="D:\Sites\projA" />
 <option value="D:\Sites\projB" />
 <option value="D:/Sites/projA" />
 <option value="D:/Sites/projC" />

ProjA with both forward and backslash. I think forwards are correct remains of 2019.2 not yet reopened.

Both the IDE and the F.S.Plugin always shows backslashes in the window, whereas in the settings forwards are being stored.

And the path is shown instead of the project name in correspondence of the option with the - at this point supposedly faulty - backslashes.