WebStorm 2023.3 Help

Save and revert changes

WebStorm automatically saves changes that you make in your files. Saving is triggered by various events, such as running, debugging, performing version control operations, closing a file or a project, or quitting the IDE. Saving files can be also triggered by third-party plugins.

Most of the events that trigger auto-save are predefined and cannot be configured, but you can be sure that changes will not be lost and you can find all of them in local history.

Configure autosave behavior

  1. In the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) , select Appearance & Behavior | System Settings.

  2. Under Sync external changes, configure the following options:

    • Save files when switching to a different application or a built-in terminal: Save all modified files when you switch from WebStorm to a different application.

    • Save files if the IDE is idle for N seconds: Save all modified files at regular time intervals.

  3. Apply the changes and close the dialog.

Mark files with unsaved changes

You can mark unsaved files with an asterisk (*) on the file tab:

  1. In the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) , select Editor | General | Editor Tabs.

  2. Select the Mark modified (*) checkbox.

  3. Apply the changes and close the dialog.

    After that, the tab of the file in which you have unsaved changes will be marked with an asterisk.

If you use version control integration, names of all modified files will be also marked with a dedicated color on the file tab and in the Project tool window.

Save changes manually

You can always save your changes manually:

  • Press Ctrl+S or select File | Save All from the main menu.

Trigger actions when saving changes

In WebStorm, you can configure the actions that will be triggered every time your modified files are saved.

  1. To configure autosave actions for the current project, in the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) , open Tools | Actions on Save.

    To configure the actions for new projects, go to File | New Projects Setup | Preferences for New Projects | Tools | Actions on Save in the main menu.

  2. Select the checkboxes next to the actions that you want to trigger on save:

  3. For some actions, you can configure the settings more precisely. To do so, hover over an action and click the configuration link.

    For example, for code reformatting, you can specify files and folders that you don't want to change. Hover over the action and click Configure scope to exclude specific files and folders from reformatting.

    You can also select whether to reformat the whole file or only modified lines.

  4. Apply the changes and close the dialog.

Once the necessary actions are enabled, they will be automatically triggered on every save (autosave, explicit save invoked with Ctrl+S or by selecting File | Save All) as you work with your project.

Customize WebStorm: set up actions on save

Revert changes

Last modified: 20 February 2024