IntelliJ IDEA can't open projects or add SDK on macOS Catalina

It's a known issue specific to the recent macOS Catalina update. Please follow YouTrack ticket for updates.

You can also help by providing the following information in YouTrack:

Open the file chooser, select a directory (but don't open it yet), take a screenshot, then open a directory; then attach idea.log and the screenshot (a path to a project and a time of the operation are needed, too, but they should be guessable from the screenshot).

As a workaround until this issue is resolved you can add -Dide.mac.file.chooser.native=false in Help | Edit Custom VM Options and restart the IDE.


Mac OS, Mojave or Catalina, Exit intellij first,

  1. Apple menu  > System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, then click Privacy.
  2. Click the lock , then enter your administrator password.
  3. From the list of items on the left, select Full Disk Access.
  4. Add Intellij(or other whatever app having this problem) to the apps allowed full-disk access by using the add button.

Lock and try again.

Hope this will help.

Ref from apple support of other things, but I tried, it works!