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I see no readily available Google search results that answer this question. What is it, and what is it used for?

Makoto
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Landon Kuhn
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  • See also [Is it possible to make Intellij enter power save mode when my laptop is on battery automatically?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44256878/is-it-possible-to-make-intellij-enter-power-save-mode-when-my-laptop-is-on-batte) – Vadzim Mar 06 '23 at 16:11

2 Answers2

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It's a setting to stop the IDE from automatically performing the full range of battery-hungry code inspections in the background as you type.

You should find that with powersave turned on, syntax errors will still get highlighted, but iffy code constructs e.g. missing docblocks, assignment inside conditional statements, etc., will not (assuming you have those inspections enabled). This means that you can save battery power when using your laptop and choose to run the inspections only occasionally by turning power save mode off for a minute or two, or using Code->Inspect code... to see what needs attention.

See Settings->Inspections to find out whether you can live without the specific inspections, which will depend on what language you are using. You can choose to run them individually on demand if you like using Code->Run inspection by name... if there are specific ones you need. More info here.

Naturally, this also applies to RubyMine, PhpStorm, PyCharm, WebStorm & AppCode as well.

Pang
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Matt Gibson
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    It seems that they do get a LOT of cpu time even when they are in background doing nothing! Still looking for a better solution, as in freezing them while in background and not running the debugger. – sorin Apr 01 '15 at 10:16
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    my understanding - if I click hector or use the file menu to enter power saving mode .. the inspections are unaffected unless I manually use the slider displayed there, correct? Therefore, entering power saving mode by itself will not disable inspections, you still have to do that also, right? – ycomp Oct 26 '15 at 21:55
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Update July 2022

Power Save Mode is enabled via the File menu (at bottom)

Original Answer May 2015

IntelliJ power save mode is indicated by a Hector icon Hector On on the Status Bar at the bottom. If IntelliJ is running in power save mode, the Hector Icon will be fadedhector off.

In Power Save Mode, no code inspections are performed. Click on the hector icon to toggle the power save mode. https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/help/status-bar.html

Stanislav Mayorov
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