Cannot add Spring facet: a plugin required by Spring support is disabled

Problem

Spring support does not work although the Spring plugin is enabled:

• The Spring facet is not offered in File | Project Structure | Facets (the + list has no Spring entry).
• Spring XML configuration files and @Configuration classes are not detected. Bean navigation, highlighting, and the Spring tool window are unavailable.
• All Spring plugins are shown as enabled in Settings | Plugins, and the IDE shows no errors or warnings.

The only trace is in idea.log: a line reporting that some plugin is marked disabled, followed by a list of excluded modules that includes intellij.spring.core.

Cause

The core part of Spring support is packaged as an optional module of the Spring plugin. The module declares dependencies on several other plugins. When any of them is disabled, the IDE skips loading the module silently: the Spring plugin remains enabled, but the Spring facet type, configuration file detection, and bean support are not registered. The plugin manager does not warn about this when the dependency plugin is being disabled.

Plugins required by Spring support in all IntelliJ IDEA versions:

• Properties
• Java Internationalization
• JVM Microservices Frameworks
• JSON

IntelliJ IDEA 2026.1.x additionally requires Groovy Live Templates, because Spring live templates were implemented with Groovy scripts in that version. Starting with 2026.2, Spring live templates no longer use Groovy scripts, and disabling Groovy Live Templates does not affect Spring support.

Resolution

1. Enable the plugins listed above in Settings | Plugins.
2. Restart the IDE.
3. Add the Spring facet in File | Project Structure | Facets if the project needs one.

Note: the Spring facet is created automatically only for Spring Boot projects and for code that instantiates a Spring context directly. When the context is started by a container (for example, in Atlassian plugins running in an OSGi container), add the facet manually and include the Spring configuration files in its file set. A manually added facet survives Maven project reimports.

The same silent breakage triggered by the disabled Copyright plugin is covered by Spring functionality is not available with Copyright plugin disabled (fixed in 2026.2).