How far back does Intellij's local history go back?

Question

I use JetBrains intellij for JavaScript NodeJS development.

I was trying to find some code I haven't committed in Git but have overwritten since couple of weeks ago. How far back and how much detail is Intellij's local history?

Can I find this change ever again?

Good question. My guess is that if you don't see it in the local history, then it's gone. — Tim Biegeleisen, Sep 21 '18 at 06:38
I was asking on behalf of a friend who was a home worker, so I can't see their screen. I hope it isn't all gone — apollowebdesigns, Sep 21 '18 at 06:40
I don't know if IntelliJ flushes the history after a certain time, or after a certain number of revisions. If this work were performed in the past few days, I'd expect it would be there. Just check. — Tim Biegeleisen, Sep 21 '18 at 06:41
Thanks, I'll pass it on. The day the changes were made was 2 weeks ago which is why I'm concerned. — apollowebdesigns, Sep 21 '18 at 06:44

glytching · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-21T09:34:59.563

The retention period for local history varies according to the version of IntelliJ.

For example in 2017.x and in 2016.x:

Local history is cleared when you install a new version of IntelliJ IDEA or when you invalidate caches. Therefore, check in the changes to your version control system before performing these operations.

But in 2018.x (see the section titled Retention period for Local History):

By default, Local History is configured to store revisions for the last 5 working days (that is, days when the file was modified).

The 2018.x link includes instructions on how to extend the default retention period including this suggestion:

You can change the default period of how many days local history will be kept for

See also: https://stackoverflow.com/a/11829639/2000323

I can't find where you got the third quote. Google only finds this answer and no other page on the internet containing that phrase. — Mark Jeronimus, Jul 21 '21 at 07:28

How far back does Intellij's local history go back?

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