How to fully uninstall IntelliJ IDEA on Mac
Dragging IntelliJ IDEA to Trash leaves behind project indexes, caches, plugins, logs, and a Toolbox LaunchAgent that runs at login. Here's how to remove everything.
8+
Leftover locations
2–10 GB
Typical leftover size
Yes — Toolbox
Background process
What IntelliJ IDEA leaves behind
IntelliJ IDEA builds full code indexes for every project you open, and stores settings, caches, and logs in versioned directories under ~/Library. These files persist even after you delete the app:
| Location | Contents |
|---|---|
| ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea*/ | IDE settings, plugins, and project templates |
| ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea*/ | Project indexes, compiled code, and build caches |
| ~/Library/Logs/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea*/ | IDE logs, thread dumps, and heap reports |
| ~/Library/Preferences/com.jetbrains.intellij.plist | Global IDE preferences |
| ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.jetbrains.intellij.savedState/ | Window positions and open projects |
| ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea*/index/ | Code navigation indexes (often 1–3 GB alone) |
| ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/consentOptions/ | JetBrains analytics consent data |
| ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.jetbrains.* | JetBrains Toolbox auto-updater (if installed) |
Manual removal (step-by-step)
- 1. Quit IntelliJ IDEA completelyUse ⌘Q or choose File → Exit while IntelliJ is focused.
- 2. Delete the app bundleOpen /Applications in Finder, drag IntelliJ IDEA.app to Trash.
- 3. Open Library in FinderPress ⌘ Shift G in Finder and type
~/Library. - 4. Delete these folders/filesNavigate to each location in the table above and delete the IntelliJ files. Use ⌘ Delete to move to Trash.
- 5. Remove the LaunchAgentDelete
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.jetbrains.*to stop the Toolbox auto-updater from running at login. - 6. Empty TrashOnce you're confident, empty the Trash to reclaim disk space.
Automated removal with Zapper
Instead of hunting through 8+ directories manually, Zapper finds everything in seconds:
- Before deleting IntelliJ, drop
IntelliJ IDEA.apponto Zapper's window. - Zapper scans all 11 Library directories and shows every leftover file with its path and size.
- Review the list, check the files you want to remove, and click Zap.
- Files move to Trash — including multi-gigabyte indexes and the Toolbox LaunchAgent. Restore with ⌘Z if needed.
Why IntelliJ leftovers are enormous
IntelliJ IDEA builds full code indexes for every project you've opened. These indexes power features like code navigation, refactoring, and search across your codebase. They're stored in versioned directories (e.g., IntelliJIdea2024.3, IntelliJIdea2025.1) so if you've upgraded IntelliJ, you may have indexes from multiple versions sitting on disk.
A single project's index can be 1–3 GB. If you've worked on several projects across multiple IntelliJ versions, leftover indexes alone can easily consume 5–10 GB of disk space.
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.jetbrains.*
JetBrains Toolbox installs a LaunchAgent that starts automatically at login to check for IDE updates. This process runs in the background even after you delete IntelliJ IDEA. Zapper detects and removes it during the scan.