How the setting management works in the remote IDE? – Support | JetBrains

Question:

When I create a new remote machine, it seems some settings from the old one are not being used. How does it work?

Answer:

In Remote Development, settings are split between the frontend and the backend (local and remote machines):

Frontend (client side): application-level settings (e.g., UI preferences, appearance, keymaps). These are stored locally and persist across sessions, shared with the local IDE if it is installed.
Backend:
- project-level settings exist only here and are related only to the project. If the backend machine is recreated, these settings are lost.
- application-level settings that only exist on the backend side. There is a mechanism that silently syncs some backend settings to the local machine, so they can be restored when connecting to a new host. If the backend machine is recreated, some of these settings are lost. Starting from version 2025.3.1, we increased the number of settings that are synchronized from the backend to the frontend (see IJPL-199766). We are going to improve the behaviour in further releases (see IJPL-199766).

Plugins: plugins installed on the backend persist on the backend. They are not automatically synchronized to other hosts. The exception is for adapted plugins for remote development that have both frontend and backend parts (the IDE shows a notification if either the backend or the frontend is missing). For keeping plugins consistent across hosts, try using Backup and Sync (File | Manage IDE Settings | Backup and Sync).

Automatic plugin synchronization between hosts is tracked in IJPL-199761, but it is not yet implemented.

Settings that are synchronized (via the mechanisms described above) are transferred immediately when changed. However, writing to disk on the backend may happen slightly later, for example, on IDE frame deactivation.

If the backend process is forcefully terminated (e.g., the remote machine is killed without a graceful shutdown), any settings that have not yet been written to disk will be lost.

Regarding credentials requested by the IDE, these are now saved on the frontend side. If the user allows the IDE to remember the credentials, they will persist across IDE restarts and new backend connections (IJPL-199758, available since 2025.3).