# Troubleshooting materials

Consider attaching some troubleshooting materials for a more precise and quick answer. The following materials might be helpful for our investigation: log files, screenshots, animations, videos, database dumps.

## Locate log files

Procedure: Locate IntelliJ IDEA log

* Click `Help | Show Log in <file_browser>`. The `idea.log` file contains recent log information about your IDE performance.

Procedure: Change location of the SQL log

To change location of the SQL log, add the `-Didea.system.path`  property to the custom VM options. This change affects all logs.

1. Click `Help | Edit Custom VM Options…`.

2. At the end of the option list, add the following line: `-Didea.system.path=/path/to/your_log_directory`.

![Change location of the SQL log](https://resources.jetbrains.com/help/img/idea/2026.2/db_change_log_location.png)

Procedure: Configure IntelliJ IDEA log settings

To avoid editing the `log.xml` file itself, IntelliJ IDEA suggests a handy dialog to change logging level for a category. This file resides under the `bin` directory of IntelliJ IDEA installation.

1. Click `Help | Diagnostic Tools | Debug Log Settings`.

2. In the Custom Debug Log Configuration dialog, type the log categories names, separated with new lines.

> **Note:**
> Consider contacting the support service before you edit `log.xml`. Some users might be unaware of the modules names to be specified, while the support service can suggest modules for the better diagnostics.

> **Tip:**
> For more information about IDE log files, refer to [Locating
> IDE log files](https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/207241085-Locating-IDE-log-files) on the Support forum.