Where apps hide your files
IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm and the other JetBrains IDEs split their data into three Library folders, each with a subfolder per product and version. This post shows which is which, what is safe to clear, and how to carry settings to a new version or Mac.
~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/<Product><Version>/ settings, plugins, VM options
~/Library/Caches/JetBrains/<Product><Version>/ caches, indexes, local history
~/Library/Logs/JetBrains/<Product><Version>/ idea.log and diagnostics<Product><Version> is the IDE name and release together, for example IntelliJIdea2026.2, WebStorm2026.2, or PyCharmCE2021.3 for an older PyCharm Community Edition. Bug-fix updates within a release share one folder; each new release gets its own. Replace the examples with your own versions; list them with:
ls ~/Library/Application\ Support/JetBrainsThese locations apply from the 2020.1 releases onward; earlier releases kept their settings in ~/Library/Preferences/<Product><Version>. A few unversioned items, such as consentOptions, sit beside the product folders. Android Studio, which is built on the IntelliJ platform, uses ~/Library/Application Support/Google/AndroidStudio<version> instead.
To open any of them, press ⇧⌘G in Finder and paste the path, or run open ~/Library/Application\ Support/JetBrains in Terminal. Inside the IDE, Help > Show Log in Finder jumps to the log folder directly.
| Item | What it is |
|---|---|
options/ | Settings as XML files: editor.xml, ide.general.xml, recentProjects.xml, colors.scheme.xml, jdk.table.xml and more |
plugins/ | Plugins you installed, one folder each |
<product>.vmoptions | Custom JVM options, for example pycharm.vmoptions |
codestyles/, keymaps/, colors/, templates/ | Code styles, custom keymaps, colour schemes and live templates, created when you customise them |
scratches/, consoles/ | Scratch files and console history |
port.lock, workspace/ | Runtime state |
Do not share options files you do not recognise: some can contain paths, account names or tokens. File names alone are enough to find what you need. The memory limit is edited most safely from inside the IDE with Help > Edit Custom VM Options, which creates the right .vmoptions file in this folder for you.
The caches folder holds what the IDE can rebuild: caches, index, LocalHistory, projects, extResources, vcs-log, icons-v3.db and similar. It starts at a few tens of megabytes and grows with the size and number of projects you open. Check yours:
du -sh ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains/*One exception to "rebuildable": LocalHistory stores automatic snapshots of your edits, which the IDE's Local History feature uses to revert files. Clearing it loses that safety net. It does not touch your project files or your Git history.
The supported route is inside the IDE: File > Invalidate Caches…, then tick the options you want and restart. JetBrains' documentation lists options such as Clear file system cache and Local History and Clear VCS Log caches and indexes, and notes that Local History is kept unless you tick that box. The IDE then re-indexes, which takes some minutes on large projects.
By hand, quit the IDE first, then move the product's folder under ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains/ to the Trash in Finder. That does remove Local History. Never trash ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/<Product><Version> unless you want to lose all settings, plugins and custom keymaps.
The main log is idea.log in the logs folder, whichever JetBrains IDE you run, with indexing reports under indexing-diagnostic. The IDE rotates its logs, so the folder stays modest. Attach idea.log when reporting a bug, after checking it for paths you consider private.
The custom .vmoptions file in the config folder overrides the defaults inside the app bundle, which JetBrains says are replaced on every update. If the IDE feels slow on a large project, raising the maximum heap there is the usual fix, and the change stays through bug-fix updates because they share the config folder. A new release gets a new config folder, so after its first launch check that your change came across, and note what you changed so you can repeat it.
Each IDE release creates its own folders, and old ones stay behind after you update. Moving from 2021.2 to 2021.3, for example, leaves PyCharmCE2021.2 beside PyCharmCE2021.3, and trying PyCharm Professional adds PyCharm2021.2 as well. If you have uninstalled an IDE and no longer want its settings, quit everything and move its Application Support, Caches and Logs folders to the Trash. Keep the newest one if you might reinstall, because the IDE offers to import settings from a previous version on first launch.
.idea folder, not here, and travels with the project.Copying a whole config folder between different IDE versions is not recommended; use export and import instead.
Spotlight leaves ~/Library out of its results, so searching idea.log, recentProjects.xml or pycharm.vmoptions there returns nothing. Everywhere includes those folders: typing vmoptions shows every IDE's option file, and typing idea.log finds each log, with ⌘↵ revealing it in Finder. It matches names only, so it will not search inside the XML.
In ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/ followed by the product and version, for example PyCharmCE2021.3 for an older Community Edition. Caches are in ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains and logs in ~/Library/Logs/JetBrains.
In ~/Library/Logs/JetBrains/<Product><Version>/idea.log. In the IDE, Help > Show Log in Finder opens that folder.
Yes, with the IDE quit: it rebuilds indexes and caches, though deleting the folder by hand also removes Local History. File > Invalidate Caches is the supported route and keeps Local History unless you tick that option.
Each IDE release gets its own folder and old ones are not removed on update. Move the ones for versions you no longer use to the Trash.
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