Rider fails to start after upgrade — Toolbox version fallback and settings persistence

Question

Rider upgrades can fail during installation or first startup. The goal is to understand the documented recovery behavior when a new build does not start, particularly how version availability and user data persistence are handled.

Installations managed by JetBrains Toolbox App are reported to retain previous builds, while user settings, caches and plugin data are stored separately from application binaries. Standalone installer behavior may differ, and update mechanisms have changed across major releases. There is no consistently documented automatic rollback to a prior build on startup failure, and recovery is described as user-initiated and installation-method dependent.

What is the documented startup behavior when Rider fails to start after an upgrade in a Toolbox-managed installation? Is manual selection of a previous build required, or is any automatic fallback defined? Are settings and caches guaranteed to persist across a failed upgrade for both Toolbox-managed and standalone installations?

Tasadduq Burney · Answer

Recovery Behavior for Rider Upgrade Failures
In a JetBrains Toolbox-managed installation, there is no automatic fallback to a previous build if Rider fails to start after an upgrade. Recovery is a user-initiated process. Because the Toolbox App maintains separate installation directories for different versions, you can manually revert to a previous build without losing your configuration.

Manual Version Fallback via Toolbox
To recover from a failed startup, you must manually select a known working build:

Open the JetBrains Toolbox App.
  Locate Rider in your installed tools list.
  Click the Settings (three dots/gear icon) or the version dropdown menu.
  Select Other versions to view and install a previous build.
  Launch the older version to restore IDE functionality.

Settings and Cache Persistence
Settings and caches are designed to persist across upgrades and fallbacks because they are stored separately from the application binaries. This behavior applies to both Toolbox and standalone installations, though the directory structures differ.

Component
      Persistence Behavior
      Scope

User Settings
      Stored in version-specific directories (e.g., Rider2023.X).
      Persistent

Caches/Indexes
      Stored in versioned system folders; usually rebuilt on first launch.
      Version-Specific

Plugins
      Stored in versioned plugin directories.
      Version-Specific

Likely Causes and Verification
While a version rollback is the safest recovery path, startup failures are frequently caused by incompatible third-party plugins or corrupted caches rather than the IDE binaries themselves. Before performing a full rollback, verify the cause using the following steps:

Check Logs: Access the idea.log via the Toolbox version menu (Show logs) to identify specific crash signatures.
  Isolate Plugins: If the log indicates a plugin crash, navigate to the versioned plugins directory and temporarily move the offending plugin to a backup folder.
  Clear Caches: Delete the versioned system/caches directory to force a clean index rebuild.

Note: While IDE settings are preserved, project-level metadata (the .idea folder) modified by a newer version may not always be perfectly backward-compatible with an older build, though this is rare for minor version differences.

Diagnostic Detail Needed: To provide a more specific resolution, please provide the idea.log output from the failed startup attempt.

Rider fails to start after upgrade — Toolbox version fallback and settings persistence

1 answer

Recovery Behavior for Rider Upgrade Failures

Manual Version Fallback via Toolbox

Settings and Cache Persistence

Likely Causes and Verification

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Component	Persistence Behavior	Scope
User Settings	Stored in version-specific directories (e.g., `Rider2023.X`).	Persistent
Caches/Indexes	Stored in versioned system folders; usually rebuilt on first launch.	Version-Specific
Plugins	Stored in versioned plugin directories.	Version-Specific