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](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4481951/intellij-idea-jdk-configuration-on-mac-os) — random, Oct 13 '13 at 18:21

score 121 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

121

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 '17 at 12:25

Community

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answered Jan 06 '11 at 19:20

CrazyCoder

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Thanks - my Java updated itself over night and the path to the JDK had become invalid – Tom Chamberlain Feb 21 '17 at 09:06

score 70 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 28 '15 at 03:03

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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 '15 at 03:03

user4660857

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Second one fixed the problem for me, but why? – Menasheh Jan 25 '17 at 22:30
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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 – dieHellste Feb 18 '19 at 10:26
what's the equivalent to Libraries in the new version of intelliJ? – Javier Heisecke Jan 26 '21 at 12:38
The second solution worked for me too. I'd be very interested to know what happens here. – Deuchnord Jun 05 '23 at 14:19

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 05:24

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.

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 — Benas, Aug 30 '21 at 10:50

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 27 '21 at 21:19

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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 '21 at 21:19

Thiago Cavalcanti

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score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 01 '22 at 19:56

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:

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 06 '17 at 02:03

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.

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 12 '21 at 11:16

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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 '21 at 11:16

sarjeet singh

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score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 27 '22 at 18:14

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

answered Apr 27 '22 at 18:14

Temur Isroilov

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 18 '21 at 09:42

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For me ,

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

answered Oct 18 '21 at 09:42

Rishabh Dugar

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered May 04 '23 at 02:06

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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 04 '23 at 02:06

Yibingqing Jiang

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

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