How to find where IntellIJ IDE is installed

Question

How to find where IntelliJ IDEA is installed?

Answer

The location of your IntelliJ IDEA installation folder on Windows depends on how it was installed (manually or via the JetBrains Toolbox App). However, you can see the default installation paths in the Directories Used by the IDE document, or, from the IDE, select Help | Diagnostic Tools | Special Files and Folders from the main menu to display the full paths.

Below cases show how to check the installation folder depending on how the IDE was installed:

Case 1: Toolbox

If the IDE was installed via the JetBrains Toolbox App:

1. Open the Toolbox app.

2. Click the three-dot ⋮ menu next to the IDE name and choose Settings:

   

3. The Install location field shows the IDE's installation path:

   

Typical Toolbox install locations:

• Windows: %LocalAppData%\Programs
• macOS: ~/Applications
• Linux: ~/.local/share/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps

Case 2: Manually

If the IDE was installed manually using a standalone .exe installer (or having extracted a .zip file):

• Windows
  • Default location: C:\Program Files\JetBrains\<IDE name><version>
  • If installed in a custom location:
    • Right-click the IntelliJ IDEA desktop icon or Start menu entry.
    • Select Open file location (or right-click again if it's a shortcut within the Start menu folder) -> this will take you to the bin directory within the installation folder.
• macOS
  1. Open Finder.
  2. Click Applications in the left sidebar.
  3. If the IDE is not listed, check both /Applications and ~/Applications.
• Linux

  • On Linux there isn’t a "default" installationn path because it depends where the user desided to extract the tarball. JetBrains recommend extracting it under /opt, so a very common path is something like:

    • Installation dir: /opt/idea (or /opt/idea-IU-<version>)
    • Launcher script: /opt/idea/bin/idea.sh

  • If you can launch the IDE from the terminal, to get the installation path run:

    type <IDE_NAME>
    

    Example for IntelliJ IDEA:

    type idea
    

  • For a Snap package it will be under /snap, e.g. intellij-idea-ultimate or intellij-idea-community.