Change the default location of Pycharm Project

Question

I am using PyCharm 3.4.1 on Ubuntu 14.04. For new project it suggests ~/PyCharmProjects for storing project folders. Is it possible to change the location and n

Answer 1

I haven't found an explicit option for doing this in PyCharm, but the following steps have worked as an alternative:

• Move your PycharmProjects folder to the desired location.
• When you create a new project, press the "..." button to the right of the path (This is on the pop up window that asks for location and interpreter).
• Navigate to the new location of PycharmProjects and select that directory.
• Add the name of the new project to the directory location (ie. /home/alex/Documents/PycharmProjects/new_project_name)

Now, whenever you create a new project, the location will default to the last chosen path.

This wouldn't be a good solution for someone who is creating projects in many different directories, rather than just PycharmProjects. All my projects are within PycharmProjects and this works just fine.

Answer 2

Just like virtualenvwrapper, PyCharm apparently obeys $PROJECT_HOME

export PROJECT_HOME=$HOME/Devel
pycharm

or

PROJECT_HOME=$HOME/Devel pycharm

Answer 3

I know this is an old question, but is is certainly possible as of now

Settings | Appearance & Behaviour | System Settings | Default directory

See JetBrains support page

Answer 4

PyCharm (since at least version 2017) remembers the parent directory of the last place where you created a project. So create a junk project in the directory that you want to be your default projects directory, then close that project, and delete it from disk. The next time you create a project, pycharm will automatically put you in that directory.

Answer 5

Just an update to @Psionman's answer. At least in the professional version (2019.3.5), t appears to have shifted just a bit. The field is now available at

File | Settings | Appearance & Behavior | System Settings > Project Opening > Default Directory

Answer 6

In fact, this is possible. In the IDE settings folder (https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/project-and-ide-settings.html), under config/options/recentProjectDirectories.xml, you can add an option lastProjectLocation. It wil honor this setting when creating new projects. My recentProjectDirectories.xml looks like this:

<application>
  <component name="RecentDirectoryProjectsManager">
    <option name="lastProjectLocation" value="$USER_HOME$/my_projects" />
  </component>
</application>

In fact, for most options that you want to customize, you could do a diff of the config/options folder before and after you make the change: this way you can find out a lot about how PyCharm (or any IntelliJ tool) configures its editor.