Keyboard shortcut for Jump to Previous View Location (Navigate back/forward) in IntelliJ IDEA

Alt + Shift + ← (Left Arrow)

or

Ctrl + E (Recent Files pop-up).

Also check:

Ctrl + Shift + E (the Recently Edited Files pop-up).

Mac users, replace Ctrl with ⌘ (command) and Alt with ⌥ (option).

Update In v12.0 it's Alt + Shift +← (Left Arrow) instead of Alt + Ctrl + ← (Left Arrow).

Update 2 In v14.1 (and possibly earlier) it's Ctrl + [

Update 3 In IntelliJ IDEA 2016.3 it's Ctrl + Alt + ← (Left Arrow)

Update 4 In IntelliJ IDEA 2018.3 it's Alt + Shift + ← (Left Arrow)

Update 5 In IntelliJ IDEA 2019.3 it's Ctrl + Alt + ← (Left Arrow)

The underlying problem is Ctrl+Alt+Left and Right are used by window managers to switch workspace and/or OEM utilities to change the screen orientation.

You can change the assignments using File / Settings / Keymap then Main Menu / Navigate find Back and Forward and right click to Add Keyboard Shortcut to set an alternative key chord.

Alt Graph+Left and Alt Graph+Right works well for me (IDEA 13.1.4 on Ubuntu under IceWM).

CMD + [ -> Go Previous

CMD + ] -> Go Next

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For OSX, cmd + [ and ] are the best choices to go back & forth, Since they are found so near to fingers, avoiding you wrist twisting a bit, one keypress lesser, ideal for users in vim mode.

As the OP requested, this works well with cmd + B which facilitates jumping inside/to the method/variable definition and comes back immediately using cmd + [. Give a try.