IntelliJ cannot find any declarations

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I completely uninstalled IntelliJ and have now reinstalled and imported my project. I imported using gradle and can see all of the files in my project present. However, when I open a file I can't find any declaration to go to by doing cmd + click. I have the Java 7 SDK setup, and I can't even go to the declaration of classes in my own project. Going to a Java core class like String or List doesn't work either. How can I enable the IDE to be able to find my classes?

I'm on OSX Yosemite, IntelliJ 2016.1.2 build 145.972.

Misstate answered 17/5, 2016 at 17:0 Comment(2)

Is your source directory marked as source route? If not, right-click on a directory with java classes and then: Mark Directory As -> Sources Root – Leacock 17/5, 2016 at 21:5

In my case I needed to mark my resources folder a Resources Root. – Outshine 16/4, 2019 at 14:23

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I had this same problem, and @AniaG's solution in the comments worked for me.

Right-click src folder
Mark Directory as > Sources Root

Nicolais answered 24/8, 2016 at 19:6 Comment(11)

There is no option "Mark directory as" in the context menu anymore. Use CMD + shift +A to find "mark directory as" action – Paderna 22/5, 2017 at 9:17

I still see it as an option in IntelliJ IDEA 2017.1.3 – Nicolais 22/5, 2017 at 18:44

Mark the java folder instead of src works for me – Patinated 10/1, 2018 at 2:29

When I set this, errors show the whole project. What's wrong. – Whole 28/11, 2018 at 6:14

The above solution worked for me once. But next time it did not. When i started Intellij on our pom project. It showed one warning, something like "unmanaged pom file found". I clicked on it and chose to link it and it worked after that. – Canadian 15/4, 2019 at 16:55

With a Maven directory structure, I had to mark src/main/java as Sources Root, src/main/resources as Resources Root, and the test directories as the test sources counterparts. I always need to control my "fist of death" when some n00b tells me in a condescending manner that "developing with Intellij is much faster than with Eclipse." – Dinnage 29/4, 2019 at 13:38

Attention! This will destroy setups from Intellij framework support. In my case, the Spring context has been deleted within Intellij and I had to rebuild it in "Project Structure" - "Modules". – Signal 5/9, 2019 at 10:16

In my case java directory was already marked, I just needed to move my classes there (because I added maven support after creating and placing the classes). – Abramson 1/5, 2020 at 19:18

This is not solving any problem. I even see Kotlin not configured error in android studio. Can you give explanation as to what this is going to do and how it is solving the problem please? – Indecision 13/10, 2020 at 14:44

This was the only worked for me. But why do we need to do this? What mistake happened that weone needs to do this? – Populous 20/1, 2021 at 7:36

In my case, the following step worked, right-click pom.xml and Select Maven -> Reload project – Gorey 23/7, 2021 at 19:51

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I faced the same issue and spent almost 15-16 tiring hours to clean, rebuild, invalidate-cache, upgrade Idea from 16.3 to 17.2, all in vain. We have a Maven managed project and the build used to be successful but just couldn't navigate between declaration/implementations as Idea couldn't see the files.

After endlessly trying to fix this, it finally dawned to me that it's the IDEA settings causing all the headache. This is what I did (Windows system):

Exit IDE
Recursively delete all .iml files from project directory del /s /q "C:\Dev\trunk\*.iml"
Find and delete all .idea folders
Delete contents of the caches, index, and LocalHistory folders under <user_home>\.IntelliJIdea2017.2\system
Open Idea and import project ....

VOILAAAAAAAAAAAA...!! I hope this helps a poor soul in pain

Phyllis answered 28/7, 2017 at 15:51 Comment(4)

Where is .IntelliJIdea2017.2\system? Is that path system specific? – Aarhus 19/2, 2018 at 12:26

I was experiencing this for build.gradle.kts files, and deleting the .idea directory and .iml project file was sufficient enough to fix the issues. Of note: this was opening a Linux project in Windows (both versions of IntelliJ were the same - 2019.3) – Sheer 4/1, 2020 at 15:1

Clearing the .iml-Files just in that sub-module where IntelliJ could not find the declarations was working for me. It is not necessary to clear out the .idea folder (which also contains your runConfigurations). – Ferri 18/9, 2020 at 10:52

worked on linux, thanks; obv. rm -Rf – Commentative 13/2, 2022 at 16:47

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I had the same issue with idea and I was trying to open a maven project but the pom files where not identified. So right clicking on the pom file and choosing "add as maven project" did all the magic for me :)

Purgative answered 10/1, 2019 at 14:50 Comment(4)

likewise but for me it was "reimport" – Nador 7/8, 2019 at 16:10

Same! Just after "add as maven project" I had to again right click pom.xml -> Maven -> Reload Project. and it started navigating :) – Succinctorium 5/6, 2020 at 20:3

I did have the add as maven project option, not sure why :( – Stelliform 4/1, 2022 at 10:7

Same for me. Right now the command can be found under File / New / Projecr From Existing Sources... , choose the pom file. After that I clicked on Reload All Maven Projects button in Maven view. – Statement 19/1, 2023 at 20:16

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Had the same problem. But only on my own methods.
Just fixed it by invalidating cache: (File-> Invalidate Caches/Restart)

Baht answered 20/6, 2018 at 14:24 Comment(0)

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Most of the times there has been a problem with building the cache of the IDE, or something related.

Most probably, File -> Invalidate Caches / Restart, will resolve this problem, just let the IDE finalize it's caching.

Hafiz answered 26/5, 2019 at 19:28 Comment(3)

This has always worked for me. It should definitely be used before some of the more dramatic procedures above. First right click project->maven reload project, then this, finally look at some the other procedures outlined above – Bundy 23/4, 2021 at 11:37

This worked for me. I am working Rust workspace. – Loeffler 8/5, 2023 at 10:55

@Bundy dramatic procedures 😂😂 – Sheerlegs 12/3 at 18:52

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I was having similar issues in my IntelliJ mvn project. Pom.xml was not recognized. What worked for me was right click on the pom.xml and then add as a maven project.

Cohe answered 26/6, 2019 at 16:13 Comment(2)

Same! Just after "add as maven project" I had to again right click pom.xml -> Maven -> Reload Project. and it started navigating :) – Succinctorium 5/6, 2020 at 20:4

I didn't need to add as maven project, instead I did this: "right click pom.xml -> Maven -> Reload Project" – Organic 24/10, 2022 at 12:34

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Your source folders where your Symbols are (Classes) are need to be configured as "Content Root".

Open Project Structure: #;
Click Modules
You can configure your Content Root (Sources, Tests, Resources etc) for each module that you want to Navigate to.

Once done you should be able to navigate to your symbols.

Sundberg answered 25/8, 2016 at 19:8 Comment(1)

for some reason ALL the subfolders of the root folder of the project were marked as excluded. thanks @Sundberg – Chiropractor 31/3, 2022 at 16:56

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Right-click on your src folder and choose the option "mark directory as" --"Source root" and along with it again right-click on your project and choose "reformat code"(under this choose cleanup code too) and that will work fine.

Abshire answered 14/10, 2019 at 10:37 Comment(0)

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If you see red circle on the icon of Java files, and got warning like "cannot find declaration to go to". Then you can do something below:

Right click root folder of your project/module.
Mark Directory As -> Excluded.

It works for me. in Windows 7, Intellij 2016.1.1

Fatimahfatimid answered 15/6, 2018 at 4:10 Comment(0)

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In my case, I just updated my IntelliJ to Ultimate 2018.2 and all of my projects suddenly cannot find the implementations and the 'src' folders - it turned out IntelliJ removed the type of project (e.g. Maven).

What I did is:

Right click on the root project > Add Framework support... > Look for Maven (in my case) > Wait to re-index again > Then it worked again.

UPDATE 2:

I have always been encountering this when I update IntelliJ (2019.1.1 Ultimate Edition). Just click the refresh button of Maven Tab and it should re-index your current project as Maven Project:

Hagiographer answered 20/9, 2018 at 11:16 Comment(1)

Thats Worked for me, only aftter do this "File-> Invalidate Caches/Restart"! thanks! – Inshrine 21/6, 2023 at 13:52

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I got this problem on Big Sur. Solution: File -> Invalidate Caches. After that press Option + Enter on every red field.

Critter answered 15/4, 2021 at 12:26 Comment(0)

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None of the methods listed in this channel works for me. However, I am able to resolve it using the following method, and I hope that it works for you too.

Right Click the pom.xml file and then select "Maven". After that, click "Import Maven Project"

Bunion answered 26/8, 2021 at 20:55 Comment(3)

For IntelliJ 2021.2, I click "reload project" to solve this issue. – Gui 31/8, 2021 at 20:57

this worked :). yes in new version it is "reload project" – Bunin 16/12, 2021 at 6:13

The "reload project" option worked for me. Thanks, Vision – Taeniafuge 23/2, 2023 at 13:20

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I found this cannot find declaration to go to problem once in my Maven project. The reason for this was just that one of the sub-projects in my project did not import as maven project correctly.

Silesia answered 14/7, 2017 at 12:51 Comment(0)

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Importing my project (which had 3 different modules in it) - as File -> Module From Existing Sources fixed it for me.

Abaddon answered 8/10, 2020 at 22:45 Comment(0)

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Just run below commands

mvn idea:clean

mvn idea:idea

Metamorphic answered 16/7, 2021 at 6:30 Comment(2)

This command solve my intellij issue – Zoes 13/4, 2022 at 7:32

Yes this indeed worked! I had tried everything else but this one worked. I had to install maven first. – Undercoat 27/9, 2022 at 14:21

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Ensure that the directory which contains your compiled classes and libraries is marked as sources Root.

Durstin answered 21/5, 2018 at 16:15 Comment(0)

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I too faced this issue. I've tried the solutions mentioned here. The issue seems not with the source folder.

For me the issue occurred when I installed a new version of IntelliJ, was using 2019 version moved to 2020 version. The project got opened in the new version but the declarations were missing.

I fixed this by :

 - File>Project Structure.  
 - Under Project Settings go to Modules. Here you should see the different project folders, for me it was not there. 
 - Click the + button on top and click Import Module.
 - Select the root pom.xml and wait for the indexing to complete.

After the indexing is done all the declarations were working.

Unpromising answered 8/6, 2020 at 13:19 Comment(0)

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For Java based project, this is what worked for me :-

-Download Intellij 2020.3.4 version instead of 2021.1.1
-Add configuration, plugins.
-Configure settings, Project Structure
-Right click on the root folder -> Mark Directory as -> Sources Root
-File -> Invalidate caches/restart -> Invalidate and Restart

Wahhabi answered 27/5, 2021 at 4:5 Comment(0)

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IDEA may ignore some of your maven dependency files. The "External Libraries" node in your project structure might be empty or incomplete.

Go to:

IntelliJ --> Preferences
Search for Maven [on the left tab] -> Ignored Files
See if there is any path on the right side that is checked(ignored) and uncheck that.

Creamy answered 28/11, 2016 at 16:39 Comment(1)

You can also change this in the Maven tab. The ignored modules will appear greyed out. – Ornas 12/12, 2019 at 0:31

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Came across the same issue and in my case (Java project), I had to include all the dependent jars in the project's libraries section.

File -> Project Structure -> Libraries

I had to add my project dependent jars in the above section (for example; project/web/lib/). After doing so, all resolved fine. I hope this will help someone.

Bund answered 19/2, 2019 at 20:54 Comment(0)

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For someone whom the above solution didn't worked.

For gradle,

File -> Project Structure

Click on Project Under Project Settings

Update Project Language level as Modules, private methods in interfaces etc.

Click OK and Import Gradle Settings

Nigh answered 21/11, 2019 at 6:58 Comment(0)

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I had similar issue with Goland JetBrain and what worked for me is similar to what @user8382868 said but I only closed the IDE, renamed the folder .idea file to .idea.old and after re-opening the project everything worked.

Xenomorphic answered 24/11, 2020 at 12:51 Comment(0)

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In my case I was using a gradle project with subprojects. The reason IntelliJ couldn't find declarations was that the subprojects were not built.

After investigating why subprojects were not built, I found out that using "auto-import" was breaking the subprojects.

After importing the project from build.gradle without auto-import, it worked for me.

Aarhus answered 19/2, 2018 at 14:45 Comment(0)

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For what its worth, in Pycharm it is: Right click on the root folder->Mark Directory as-> Sources Root

Harbard answered 14/5, 2018 at 16:36 Comment(0)

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Same Problem for Python Project!!!

I tried to make a clean new intellij project and updated everything. Tried different virtualenvs but nothing worked out.

UNTIL I uninstalled the Python Plugin + Restart IntelliJ + Intall Python Plugin + Restart IntelliJ again. I'm not sure if this is a "real" solution, but it solved my issue.

Maybe you can try something familar for Java "Plugin"/JDK?

Cladding answered 10/7, 2018 at 12:30 Comment(0)

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In my case, none of the above helped. Only upgrade of Intellij from 2017.3 to 2018.2 helped.

Do not try 2018.1 as it had a bug wherein the Find files popup would not come up.

Astolat answered 5/11, 2018 at 23:7 Comment(0)

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Somehow I set my Maven modules to be ignored. In the Maven tool window right click and select 'Unignore Projects'.

Then all the directories will be automatically selected.

Mutism answered 23/1, 2020 at 19:10 Comment(0)

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I had the same issue. what i did was. Select your project >right click> go to settings> plugins > search for cucumber > and then re-bundled the plugin and restart your intellij. It should fix the issue.

Ubangi answered 28/5, 2021 at 7:7 Comment(0)

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Nothing above worked for me unfortunately. I deleted all downloaded dependencies from .m2\repository and did a mvn clean install to download them again. (Although i did not have any issues in the pom.xml at the first place)

That worked for me.

Acridine answered 5/8, 2021 at 15:51 Comment(0)

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In my case, I've to open preferences:

And I went to Project -> Project Structure -> set my folder project in +Add Content Root

So now all it work fine!

Pentagrid answered 7/10, 2021 at 11:38 Comment(0)

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Python project

Along with setting the correct interpreter through the following settings path

File > Settings > Project > Python Interpreter

I also updated the project structure's content root to be the srcdirectory

File > Settings > Project > Project Structure   
- remove current content root     
- add content root to point at src

Obstipation answered 29/10, 2021 at 18:47 Comment(0)

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Using Kotlin/Multiplatform library

Project structure > Modules Then remove [main] and [test] if platform are already used

Example of final result

Tilney answered 6/9, 2022 at 20:32 Comment(0)

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The same issues was on Android Studio Bumblebee in XML layout file. Switching (checkout) to another branch on git and coming back to the original branch solved the issue.

Moulder answered 29/10, 2022 at 14:50 Comment(0)

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The answers provided here helped some, but not completely. This is because, for a multi-project solution where classes import classes from other projects, you will need to mark all relevant projects as Sources Root. Marking the solution folder as Sources Root will not work.

Also, I do recommend invalidating all of the caches and re-opening the solution.

Agrippina answered 30/11, 2022 at 23:2 Comment(0)

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If you are new to IntelliJ u May take some time to understand IntelliJ. If a Code has written in Java and using cucumber framework then we have two main files -

Feature file
Step definition file

Goal : what are things we have defined in feature file it must be navigate towards Step Definition File. (Ctrl +click ) Note :feature file has to contain some colourful gherkins keywords too .if it’s not follow the below steps

Solution : go to file >>settings >> plugins - search “Cucumber for Java” Add the plugin restart IntelliJ it will work for sure .

Ischium answered 3/7, 2020 at 12:8 Comment(1)

Cucumber for Java comes bundled with IntelliJ – Lightfooted 10/7, 2020 at 1:41

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