Configuring Project and IDE Settings
In PhpStorm, you can configure settings and structure on two levels — the project level and the IDE level.
Project-level settings and structure
The project level settings and structure are applied to the current project only. These settings are stored together with other project files in the .idea directory.
If your project is under a version control, it is recommended to store XML files with project-specific settings (the .idea folder inside the project folder) under version control, the exception being workspace.xml and tasks.xml, which store user-specific settings.
You can refer to this JetBrains.gitignore on GitHub to see what should be ignored.
Access the project-level settings
-
Select for Windows and Linux, or for macOS.
Alternatively, press Ctrl+Alt+S, or use the
icon on the toolbar.
IDE-level (global) settings and structure
The IDE level (global) settings and structure are applied to the current project and to all new projects that you create afterwards. The list of IDE-level settings contains less options, but it enables you to change the editor settings, create custom scopes, configure inspections, set VCS-specific settings, and so on.
If you want to share the IDE settings between already existing projects, you can use the Settings Repository or the Settings Sync plugin. You can also export the settings to a JAR archive and import it later to other IDE instances. However, note that the settings import may not work correctly if you already use the Settings Repository or the Sync plugin.
Access the IDE-level settings
From the main menu, select for Windows and Linux, or for macOS.
Finding an option or setting
In the the search field of the Settings/Preferences dialog, start typing the text that you expect to find in the name of the setting. As soon as the specified text is found, the matching element is highlighted and the corresponding page is displayed.
Restore the default settings
To restore the PhpStorm default settings, you can remove the configuration directory (idea.config.path) when the IDE is not running. The directory is located in:
~/Library/Preferences/<PRODUCT><VERSION>
Note that the Library folder may be hidden in the Finder.
For more information, refer to Directories used by the IDE to store settings, caches, plugins and logs.