Uninstall IntelliJ IDEA on Mac
Quit IntelliJ IDEA before touching any of its folders by hand, and prefer the IDE's own cleanup tools over deleting things yourself. Your projects and .idea folders live wherever you keep them on disk and are never part of an uninstall; what this page covers is IntelliJ IDEA's own settings, caches, and logs. It covers the direct download from JetBrains and the Homebrew cask intellij-idea (which installs IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate); both install the same app bundle, so the paths below apply either way. Installing through JetBrains Toolbox is a separate distribution channel with its own app and update mechanism, not covered by the test below.
Try the IDE's own cleanup first
Before deleting anything, use File › Invalidate Caches, which clears caches and indexes and offers to restart; it is the supported way to fix a stale index without touching your settings. Confirm the exact wording in your own version, since JetBrains renames menu items between releases. For an old IDE version you no longer use, Help › Delete Leftover IDE Directories… finds that version's settings, cache, and log folders and lets you choose what to remove; a version still installed starts unselected. See JetBrains Caches on Mac (IntelliJ, WebStorm, PyCharm) for the fuller explanation of what each folder holds and a safe cleanup order.
Quit and remove the app
Quit IntelliJ IDEA from its menu, then move IntelliJ IDEA.app from Applications to the Trash. Uninstalling does not touch your projects, and it does not cancel a JetBrains license or subscription.
Where IntelliJ IDEA keeps its data
Each major version keeps its own subfolder, named IntelliJIdea<year>.<release> (for example IntelliJIdea2026.2), under a shared JetBrains parent folder. Mole lists each version-named subfolder as a review row, and dragging the app to the Trash removes none of them. The JetBrains parent itself is shared by every other JetBrains product on the Mac and is never offered. The unselected review rows below describe Remove data and settings with apps off, the default; enabling it can preselect eligible app-owned version folders.
| Location | What it holds | What to do |
|---|---|---|
~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea<year>.<release> |
Settings, plugins, and Local History for that version | Listed but not selected; this is your configuration and plugin data, and Local History may hold your own recent changes |
~/Library/Caches/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea<year>.<release> |
Compiled search data, indexes | Listed but not selected; rebuilds automatically the next time you index |
~/Library/Logs/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea<year>.<release> |
Diagnostic logs | Listed but not selected; safe to remove once you're done troubleshooting |
~/Library/Preferences/com.jetbrains.intellij.plist |
App-level preferences | Selected by default; safe to remove |
~/Library/Saved Application State/com.jetbrains.intellij.savedState |
Saved window state | Selected by default; safe to remove |
Mole never offers the shared ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains and ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains parents for deletion, whether you're cleaning or uninstalling, because they hold every JetBrains product's data side by side, not just IntelliJ IDEA's. Toolbox's own ~/Library/Caches/com.jetbrains.toolbox is never offered either.
Check the result
Run these read-only commands in Terminal:
pgrep -il "idea"
ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea*
ls -d ~/Library/Application\ Support/JetBrains
No output from pgrep means no IntelliJ IDEA process is running. The first ls -d lists any version-named IntelliJ IDEA folder still on this Mac (expected if you left that row unchecked) and default macOS zsh reports no matches found before ls runs when no folder matches. That result concerns only this pattern; the next command independently checks the shared parent. The second ls -d shows the shared JetBrains folder, which normally still exists as long as you have any other JetBrains product installed.
If you installed it with Homebrew
Mole skips --zap when its list reaches unchecked or shared data, or cannot be fully checked, and still cleans the leftovers you selected.
Running brew uninstall --cask --zap intellij-idea yourself runs the cask's zap list regardless of what you left checked in Mole, and it trashes your version-named settings, cache, and log folders (Application Support/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea<year>.<release>, matching folders under Caches and Logs), the app-level preferences file, a legacy Preferences/IntelliJIdea<year>.<release> folder, Preferences/jetbrains.idea.*.plist, and the saved window state: the same data the table above describes, just without the choice to keep it. Back up your settings and Local History first if you want them, or remove only the app:
brew uninstall --cask intellij-idea
What Mole lists
The version-named settings, cache and log folders are review rows, unselected while Remove data and settings with apps is off, the default. Enabling it can preselect eligible app-owned rows; verify which version folders are checked before removal and untick those you want to keep. The shared JetBrains parent stays protected. App-level preferences and saved window state are selected by default.
What this test covered
IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate was installed from the Homebrew cask intellij-idea and uninstalled with a development build of Mole on September 19, 2026. The version-named product folder was already covered by Mole's existing rule for glued year-version product folders, and no new leftover was found. JetBrains Toolbox-managed installs, the direct-download DMG specifically, and other JetBrains IDEs sharing the same machine were not part of this test.