IntelliJ configuration directory
Locations can be changed by editing the following file:
IDE_HOME\bin\idea.properties
Follow the comments in idea.properties file to change the defaults, make sure to un-comment the lines defining these properties:
- idea.config.path
- idea.system.path
- idea.plugins.path
- idea.log.path
Common cases when you may need to change the default locations of the IDE files:
- user profile drive runs out of space
- disk is slow and you want to use faster HDD or SSD for caches
- default user profile points to the UNC path unsupported by the IDE
- home directory is on a network drive user profile directory is not detected correctly
- you want to create a portable installation on a USB stick
- home directory is encrypted and slows down the IDE or causes caches corruption
- caches should be excluded from the home directory
- backup antivirus or search indexer is scanning the home directory affecting IDE performance
You can change this in you %idea installation directory%\bin\idea.properties. Edit this in-place or copy the whole file to your %home% directory to keep the setting across different versions of idea.