Everything started from a problem I had with PyCharm, where it would create a ".PyCharm30" directory in my home, which would end up being about 300Mb, with a lot of files (2000+files, approx 200 directories). This gets taxed since my home dire gets synced at login/logout with a networked drive.
Fortunately, there's a way to change this default location to a non-backed-up place (e.g. I have in my home a no-backup directory which is passed over on sync).
Steps are as follows:
-
Locate the place where you've installed you AS (e.g. C:\Program Files\Android Studio)
-
Go to the bin directory and edit idea.properties file
-
Search for idea.config.path and idea.system.path and edit those. I ended up having something like:
#--------------------------------------------------------------------- # idea.config.path=${user.home}/no-backup/.IntelliJIdea/config idea.system.path=${user.home}/no-backup/.IntelliJIdea/system # #---------------------------------------------------------------------
Make sure to uncomment the lines, otherwise you'll end up with AS recreating the directory in your home.
-
It's advisable to keep
${user.home}
as directory, because AS will create (or update) the directory for each user!
Things to note:
-
Apparently, according to this, you need to copy the file into your home directory if you're on a mac :(
-
According to this, the (default) format for folders is:
# Windows Vista or higher # <SYSTEM DRIVE>\Users\<USER ACCOUNT NAME>\.<PRODUCT><VERSION> # Windows XP # <SYSTEM DRIVE>\Documents and Settings\<USER ACCOUNT NAME>\.<PRODUCT><VERSION> # Unix-based OS # ${HOME}/.<PRODUCT><VERSION>
Please remember that you have ${user.home}
at your disposal to refer to a user's home directory from the configuration file itself.
HTH,
Member discussion: