Configuring JVM options and platform properties

JVM Options

VM options are loaded from the IDE_HOME\bin\<product>[bits][.exe].vmoptions file or from the copy of this file created by the Help | Edit Custom VM Options main menu action.

The recommended way of changing the JVM options is via the Help | Edit Custom VM Options action. This action will create a copy of the .vmoptions file and open an editor where you can change them. If you can't start IDE to access this menu, edit the file manually as described below.

• when an IDE is not installed by Toolbox App:

The .vmoptions file is created and located in the config directory.

• when an IDE is installed by Toolbox App:

The .vmoptions file is managed by Toolbox App. You can find its location from:

Toolbox App -> the locknut icon -> Settings -> Configuration -> Java Virtual Machine options "Edit..."

Please note that custom .vmoptions file created using 'Edit Custom VM Options' action has the priority over the original file in the bin directory.

The options are defined one per line:

-server
-Xms128m
-Xmx512m
-XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=240m
-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC
-XX:SoftRefLRUPolicyMSPerMB=50
-ea
-Dsun.io.useCanonCaches=false
-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true
-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError
-XX:-OmitStackTraceInFastThrow
-XX:MaxJavaStackTraceDepth=-1

• If you are running under 64-bit JVM (verify in Help | About), options should be edited in the file with 64 suffix in its name (idea64.exe.vmoptions, or idea64.vmoptions on Linux, but always idea.vmoptions on Mac).
• product would be one of following: idea, phpstorm, webstorm, pycharm, rubymine, appcode.
• -Xmx value limits the maximum heap memory size that the JVM can allocate.

In order for the customizations to survive updates, copy the file to IDE configuration directory, then modify the copy instead of the original.

macOS Specifics

Don't edit .vmoptions and .properties files directly, it will violate the application signature, always make a copy of the files under IDE configuration directory and edit the copy instead. See this answer for details. The original file is located in /Applications/<Product>.app/Contents/bin folder (/Applications/<Product>.app/bin for older IDE versions).

IntelliJ IDEA Platform Properties

The recommended way of changing the platform properties in the recent product versions is from the Help | Edit Custom Properties menu. This action will create a copy of the .properties file in the IDE config directory and open an editor where you can change them. If you can't start IDE to access this menu, edit the file manually as described below.

You can change properties in the IDE_HOME\bin\idea.properties file for all the products, some popular properties that you may want to adjust:

#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# Maximum file size (kilobytes) IDE should provide code assistance for.
# The larger file is the slower its editor works and higher overall system memory requirements are
# if code assistance is enabled. Remove this property or set to very large number if you need
# code assistance for any files available regardless their size.
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
idea.max.intellisense.filesize=2500

#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# This option controls console cyclic buffer: keeps the console output size not higher than the specified buffer size (Kb)
# Older lines are deleted. In order to disable cycle buffer use idea.cycle.buffer.size=disabled
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
idea.cycle.buffer.size=1024

In order for the customizations to survive updates, copy the file to IDE configuration directory, then modify the copy instead of the original.