Search code examples
intellij-idea

Error while opening Intellij IDEA due to an already running process

I am trying to open the Intellij IDEA on Mac, but it is showing the following error:

Cannot connect to already running IDE instance.

Exception: Process 464 is still

I was able to open Intellij perfectly some time back, but now suddenly this error has popped up out of nowhere.

Solution

  • To fix this issue, you need to remove the .lock file in your configuration. It's in the config folder. The examples are for IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2.

    Linux:

    ~/.config/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea2023.2

    Windows:

    C:\Users\JohnS\AppData\Roaming\JetBrains\IntelliJIdea2023.2

    macOS:

    ~/Library/Application\ Support/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea2023.2

    There can be multiple versions of your program in the JetBrains folder, such as IntelliJ IDEA 2023.1 and IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2. You need the latest.

    Delete the .lock file and run the program; everything should work. At least it helped me.

    On Unix-like systems (Linux and macOS) you can look for the location for the .lock file using:

    find ~/ -type f -name '.lock'