IntelliJ IDEA "cannot resolve symbol" and "cannot resolve method"

Question

What are common causes for IntelliJ IDEA not being able to resolve built-in JVM types and methods? For example, when I mouse over String the tooltip says "Cannot resolve symbol 'String'". It's as if IntelliJ has doesn't know where the JVM is.

By the way, I am running OS X 10.6.6. Everything was working fine until I ran the system update this morning.

possible duplicate of IntelliJ IDEA JDK configuration on Mac OS — random
– random, Commented Oct 13, 2013 at 18:21

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:25:57Z

129

Most likely JDK configuration is not valid, try to remove and add the JDK again as I've described in the related question here.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:25

CommunityBot

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answered Jan 6, 2011 at 19:20

CrazyCoder

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1 Comment

Tom Chamberlain Over a year ago

Thanks - my Java updated itself over night and the path to the JDK had become invalid

user4660857 · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-28 03:03:47Z

75

First check if you have configured JDK correctly:

Go to File->Project Structure -> SDKs
your JDK home path should be something like this: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachine/jdk.1.7.0_79.jdk/Contents/Home
Hit Apply and then OK

Secondly check if you have provided in path in Library's section

Go to File->Project Structure -> Libraries
Hit the + button
Add the path to your src folder
Hit Apply and then OK

This should fix the problem

answered Sep 28, 2015 at 3:03

user4660857

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5 Comments

Menasheh Over a year ago

Second one fixed the problem for me, but why?

dieHellste Over a year ago

this also fixed my problems..and I had many "cannot resolve symbol/method" problems that appeared SUDDENLY....without any changes to the code or the library configurations..I would really appreciate an explanation to this answer to understand the source of the mistake

Javier Heisecke Over a year ago

what's the equivalent to Libraries in the new version of intelliJ?

Deuchnord Over a year ago

The second solution worked for me too. I'd be very interested to know what happens here.

Amit L. Nov 25 at 21:03

The first solution worked for me. IntelliJ had all the paths within Home, but didn't have the Home path on its own. Once I added /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachine/temurin-25.jdk/Contents/Home , it fixed my warnings. Edit: I'm using MacOS.

Maulik Kakadiya · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-21 05:24:21Z

7

I was facing the same problem when import projects into IntelliJ.

for in my case first, check SDK details and check you have configured JDK correctly or not.

Go to File-> Project Structure-> platform Settings-> SDKs

Check your JDK is correct or not.

Next, I Removed project from IntelliJ and delete all IntelliJ and IDE related files and folder from the project folder (.idea, .settings, .classpath, dependency-reduced-pom). Also, delete the target folder and re-import the project.

The above solution worked in my case.

answered Aug 21, 2020 at 5:24

Maulik Kakadiya

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1 Comment

Benas Over a year ago

If that doesn't help, go to IntelliJ File-> Project Structure-> Project Settings-> SDKs and change project SDK. After pressing Ok, all Java classes should be valid

sarjeet singh · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-12 11:16:42Z

5

First of all you should try File | Invalidate Caches and if it doesn't help, delete IDEA system directory. Then re-import the Maven project and see if it helps.

answered Aug 12, 2021 at 11:16

sarjeet singh

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Thiago Cavalcanti · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-27 21:19:10Z

4

For me, I had to remove the intellij internal sdk and started to use my local sdk. When I started to use the internal, the error was gone.

answered Feb 27, 2021 at 21:19

Thiago Cavalcanti

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Priyanka Wagh · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-01 19:56:40Z

4

I tried almost everything but nothing was helping with the ibm jdk 1.8. to fix this issue. then I found an article from https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-279214/Cannot-resolve-symbol-String-when-using-IBM-JDK-180 and it worked like charm!!!

so sharing original help credit goes to @Serge Barano. incase anybody needs and not able to able to resolve the issue using previous solutions like me.

according to the article answer is:

IBM JDK has a weird layout and the jar with the String class is in bin directory for some reason:

d:\dev\ibm_sdk80\jre\bin\default\jclSC180\vm.jar

If you add it to the JDK classpath in IntelliJ IDEA, the issue should resolve:

answered Jun 1, 2022 at 19:56

Priyanka Wagh

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Darien · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-06 02:03:12Z

3

For me, IntelliJ could autocomplete packages, but never seemed to admit there were actual classes at any level of the hierarchy. Neither re-choosing the SDK nor re-creating the project seemed to fix it.

What did fix it was to delete the per-user IDEA directory ( in my case ~/.IntelliJIdea2017.1/) which meant losing all my other customizations... But at least it made the issue go away.

answered Jul 6, 2017 at 2:03

Darien

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Temur Isroilov · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-27 18:14:31Z

1

In my case, cloning repo from the remote was the easiest way to solve this issue.

answered Apr 27, 2022 at 18:14

Temur Isroilov

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Rishabh Dugar · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-18 09:42:01Z

0

For me ,

File -> project structure -> Project Language Level (11) selection worked. Local variable syntax for lambda paramters.

answered Oct 18, 2021 at 9:42

Rishabh Dugar

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Yibingqing Jiang · Accepted Answer · 2023-05-04 02:06:42Z

0

In my case, right click on String then choose "Show Context Actions", it will give you option to Setup JDK, then click always downloaded. Then the error will be gone.

answered May 4, 2023 at 2:06

Yibingqing Jiang

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General Grievance · Accepted Answer · 2023-12-19 20:54:59Z

0

I solved the issue by selecting a different sdk under project structure. Also, I'm using macOS. Actually, I was using openjdk-20, I selected openjdk-19 and it resolved.

edited Dec 19, 2023 at 20:54

General Grievance

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answered Oct 28, 2023 at 14:10

Adam

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Vijay Verma · Accepted Answer · 2025-03-18 07:24:24Z

0

add following dependency in pom.xml

<dependency>
    <groupId>jakarta.persistence</groupId>
    <artifactId>jakarta.persistence-api</artifactId>
    <version>3.1.0</version>
</dependency>

you just import it
import jakarta.persistence.***;

edited Mar 18 at 7:24

answered Mar 18 at 7:22

Vijay Verma

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Jeremy Caney Mar 19 at 5:43

Thank you for your interest in contributing to the Stack Overflow community. This question already has quite a few answers—including one that has been extensively validated by the community. Are you certain your approach hasn’t been given previously? If so, it would be useful to explain how your approach is different, under what circumstances your approach might be preferred, and/or why you think the previous answers aren’t sufficient. Can you kindly edit your answer to offer an explanation?

Haoning Xu · Accepted Answer · 2025-04-09 02:24:47Z

I had the same problem as you. And I'm a macOS user. If you have already tried configuring your project structure and sdk settings. The last option I have is:

For macos

1.Delete the Intellij application from your computer

2.Remove all the Intellij configuration, cache, and plugin data.
 
# Remove preference files
rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIdea*
# Remove cache files
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea*
# Remove plugins and application support data
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea*
# Remove log files
rm -rf ~/Library/Logs/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea*
3. reboot your computer

4. reinstall Intellij Idea

I used this way, and the problem is solved. This method is not wise, but for people like me who tried a lot of ways but still didn't solve the problem, it may be the last choice.

Abhisek Roy · Accepted Answer · 2025-05-19 06:32:49Z

0

In my case, everything is set up correctly (JDK, IntelliJ configuration), but I still encountered this error. However, after closing and reopening IntelliJ IDEA, the issue was resolved.

answered May 19 at 6:32

Abhisek Roy

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S. Walker · Accepted Answer · 2024-01-12 02:03:14Z

-1

I edited the pom.xml with this:

<properties>
        ...
        <maven.compiler.release>17</maven.compiler.release>
        ...
</properties>

edited Jan 12, 2024 at 2:03

S. Walker

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answered Jan 11, 2024 at 11:27

Jonnathan Weber

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