159

Edit: my system had global key map which had overridden PyCharm. Here's the original question:

I've tried these answers, but nothing happened: Keyboard shortcut for Jump to Previous View Location (Navigate back/forward) in IntelliJ IDEA

For example:

  1. I'm navigating to a function body,
  2. put the cursor on a function call,
  3. click F12 ("go to definition")
  4. from the new location (the function's body), how do I return to the function call?

I've tried these, but they didn't do anything:

  • Ctrl+Shift+Left
  • Ctrl+Shift+F2 <-- this is my default mapping
  • Alt+Shift+Left
  • Ctrl+Shift+backspace
  • don't try that on linux: Ctrl+Alt+backspace

Or maybe F12 ("go to def") isn't "strong enough" to trigger a location-change event?

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    Ubuntu 18.04 bionic / PyCharm 2021.2>>>>>>Alt+Shift+Left Commented Sep 29, 2021 at 9:39

13 Answers 13

Reset to default
148

Under ArchLinux with PyCharm CE 3.1 works the combination Ctrl + Alt + Left.

This is the way I find out the combination:

  1. (Right click) Go To -> Implementation(s)

  2. Double Shift -> Back

    enter image description here

  3. There is an option Back in the section Actions

  4. Ctrl + Shift + A

    enter image description here

  5. And then the cursor comes back

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8 Comments

thank you for the useful "actions" tip (upvoted, fwiw), but as i mention - ctrl-alt-left didn't work for me, hence, irrelevant. see my answer
just a warning - on windows 7, ctrl-alt-left arrow rotates the screen!
@Melanie, It is, probably, because of your graphics settings. As far as I remember, there is some shortcuts for rotating / mirroring / duplicating / etc. shortcuts in Intel Graphics module.
In version 2017.2.3 (probably before as well) this has been changed to alt-shift-left
Both ctrl+alt+left and shift+alt+left works for me (pycharm 2017 2.3)
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81

All in all, it has nothing with PyCharm;

In my case, there was a global key combo of another program, that masked Ctrl-Alt-Left

I solve it by remapping "file > settings > keymap > main menu > navigate > back".

I chose Alt+Left, which intuitively feels likes web browsers "back" behavior.

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2 Comments

Thanks for the guidance, it works. But alt+left was already taken for me to another action.
This made me discover "button 4" on the mouse, also mentioned in the answer from @Hawklaz below.
62

In mac OS X (atleast in El Capitan) it is by default cmd + [ to go back to the previous location.

update: if that doesn't work also try option+cmd+left arrow

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2 Comments

how do you that on a small keyboard with direct [ stroke ? I am on a mac book air 11 inch
option+cmd+left arrow worked for me, nice!
42

Update for year 2016 to at least 2020.1.1:

In PyCharm 2016+ on windows the correct default is Ctrl+Shift+Backspace

https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/2016.2/navigating-to-next-previous-change.html

Be warned that Ctrl+Alt+Left will rotate your entire screen on Windows 10. If you're reading this with your head cocked sideways, Ctrl+Alt+Up will get you back vertical!

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2 Comments

But navigating to the previous change is different than navigating to the previous location. When I'm reading my code to understand it, I don't want to make a change to it.
Still true in PyCharm 2020.1.1
17

Alt + Shift + left

The above works with PyCharm 2016.3.2 if you select the keymap "default for GNOME".

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16

PyCharm 2019.1+

This version of PyCharm has a new functionality called Recent Locations. This is useful when you find yourself needing to move back and forth between different locations in the code.

You can use the Recent Locations popup (Ctrl+Shift+E, or ⌘+ ⇧ +E on macOS) to get you to your destination quicker.

enter image description here

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7

On macOS (Sierra; 10.12.6) and PyCharm 2017.3.1 (Professional Edition; built on December 13, 2017), if you're using the Go To -> Declaration (⌘+B), you can jump back and forth using ⌘+⌥+◀ or ▶.

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5

In Ubuntu Ctrl+Alt+Left is overridden in for switching to left workspace. I don't use workspaces at all so I cancelled that shortcut in System Settings -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Navigation -> Switch to workspace left.

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5

I have the following environment:

  1. Ubuntu 16.04 (GNOME)
  2. VNC viewer.
  3. PyCharm 2019.1 (Community edition)

In my case, when examing the "Back" navigation settings it indeed indicated that it is set to Ctrl + Alt + Left , YET it did not work. What DOES work is Alt + Shift + Left.

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1 Comment

Same on PopOS/Ubuntu based distro, PyCharm 2020.3
5

Since I don't have commenting rights, answering here. Note that if you have side buttons on your mouse, you can also use Mouse button 4 and Mouse button 5 to move to previous and next cursor position respectively. Just in case you don't want to remap your keys in Pycharm since Ctrl+Alt+Left doesn't seem to work on for me on Windows 10 with Pycharm 2020.2.3

Have a look at the key mapping based on @Berry Tsakala's answer

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3

Search for Back in the Settings ‒> Keymap, click on it and change it for what you want ‒ should help on all systems.

I use Ubuntu so the default was Ctrl + Alt + Left, but this combination is already in use by the system.

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3

I found the solutions don't go with mac. But I found that Shift + Command + Return takes you to location that you were working with.

To further explain, if you have pressed Command + Mouse click to navigate to a function, pressing the above combination takes to directly to the call.

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0

This page from the Pycharm documentation is quite useful for this... https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/navigating-through-the-source-code.html

Here's the relevant table... enter image description here

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