Question

What do I do if my IDE eats a lot of memory? Task manager shows figures much bigger than the allocated heap size.

Things to keep in mind

• Memory usage directly depends on the size and structure of your projects. The bigger the project, the more resources will be consumed to have it indexed, synchronized and easily navigable.

• The IDE itself cannot consume more RAM than the JVM maximum heap size value (Xmx). Once this limit is exceeded, an OutOfMemory error is thrown (displayed in the IDE as a notification).

• Memory usage in the OS task manager normally differs from that of a Java application. OS Task Manager reports total memory used by a Java process overall, which consists of the Java application heap + JVM resources + OS native libraries + other stuff. See:

  • IntelliJ IDEA uses more memory than maximum heap size (Xmx).
  • Why is there a discrepancy between Windows Task manager Memory and Java Heap ?).

  That's why the figure in task manager can be bigger than what is currently set in Help | Change Memory Settings.

Solutions

• Decrease the -Xmx VM option value: Help | Change Memory Settings. This will free up some resources by allocating less overall heap space to the IDE's JVM process.
• Temporarily disable all downloaded plugins and restart the IDE: Preferences | Plugins | ⚙ | Disable all downloaded plugins

⚠️ What to send to support if nothing helped

If the problem persists, please provide additional data for analysis:

1. IDE logs (entire archive): Help | Collect Logs and Diagnostics Data. We will look for exceptions and check your system environment settings.
2. A memory snapshot: Help | Diagnostic Tools | Capture Memory Snapshot
3. Two or three JVM thread dumps collected using the jstack utility.

All files can be attached to the support request or uploaded privately to our server. Make sure you provide the id of the upload so that we can find it.