In IntelliJ on OS X, how do you clear out all global setting info, licensing etc. (external to any project)

Question

I am having some low level issues with IntelliJ on my mac, I really want to just zero everything out and start over. But even after removing the application and re-installing it, IntelliJ still remembers things like what the last project was, what licensing key to use etc. Where is this information stored? And what is the best way to clear it out?

Answer 1

Normally information like this will be found in one of the following places in OS X:

/Users/username/Library/Preferences/AppName

/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.appname.plist

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/AppName

/Library/Preferences/AppName

/Library/Preferences/com.appname.plist

/Library/Application Support/AppName

If the app adheres to the standard OS X conventions you weill find info in one or all of these places. If it doesnt store here you might check for a /Users/username/.intellij folder or something similar in your home directory

Answer 2

I just checked, and IntelliJ IDEA (at least 9.x versions) seems to store its global settings in ~/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIdea90CE/

(Where ~ is your home directory.)

Best way to clear it? Well, just delete the whole directory. :-) Or, if you suspect there might be something useful there after all, move it to a new name.