Problem

A user accidentally set the font size in IntelliJ IDEA to a value high (e.g. 1000) that is causing the application interface to become unusable for navigation. Opening the application shows a gray screen.

Cause

The font size in IntelliJ's settings was set to an overly large number. This caused the interface to render in an unusable way, with elements too large to handle.

Resolution

The resolution for this issue is to manually reset the font size in IntelliJ's configuration file. Follow the steps below to do this:

1. Close IntelliJ if it's open.

2. Navigate to the IntelliJ's configuration file, you can find it in the following path:

   <configuration directory>/options/other.xml

   e.g. Mac:

   /Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/YourIDE_Version/options/other.xml

3. Open this file in any text editor.

4. Find the line that sets the font size value (<option name="fontSize" value) and change the value back to the default (e.g. 13).

   

5. Save changes to the other.xml file

6. Restart IntelliJ.

After these steps, IntelliJ should open normally with a readable font size.