279

I'm trying to use the barbecue barcode printing library. I have successfully added the library to IntelliJ through project structure add library. Then I imported the packages and wrote the methods, which gave me no error. The packages were available in the class.

But when I compile it gives me the error:

error: package net.sourceforge.barbecue does not exist

How can this be?

I'm coding in ubuntu, is there any other place to which I have to add the library?

Improve this question
3
  • 2
    And you're certain that this JAR is in the Libraries section of your Project Structure? Commented Nov 22, 2013 at 4:30
  • 1
    Verify that the scope of the library (in the project structure window) is Compile. If set to a scope of Provided it will cause the behavior you describe. Commented Nov 22, 2013 at 15:47
  • If you have a dependency under a maven profile, make sure you select the correct profile in the maven tree "Profiles", when you compile the project. Commented Apr 15, 2021 at 16:19

42 Answers 42

Reset to default
1
2
266

Just reimport didn't work. Following worked for me.

File -> Invalidate Caches /Restart

Then

Build -> Rebuild Project

That will reimport maven project.

Note : You need to invalidate the cache and also rebuild the project.

Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

Worked like a charm but can you also explain why does it happen?
Okay, just for anyone else viewing this answer -> Note that you need to invalidate the cache AND ALSO rebuild the project. I used my intuition and did only the first part, because I do see IDEA "rebuilding" and indexing after I restart, but I don't think that is enough. You need to explicitly rebuild the project.
@Raj Rajeshwar Singh Rathore it's because maven (or gradle, if you use gradle) remembers / caches parts of the previous build to then build faster each time you ask it to build your project. So when you first get the error maven remembers that this module was missing.
I also removed all .iml files from project recursively, then rebuild project. And all has been ok.
126

I tried to "Maven > Reimport" but the only thing that actually fixed it was to close the project, delete the .idea directory, and reopen the project.

Improve this answer

9 Comments

This helps but the problem appears again after some time.
I had similar issues with IntelliJ 2018 and Gradle. It couldn't find Spring packages. Doing this fixed the issue for me.
To reimport: Press Ctrl+Shift+A to find actions, and input "reimport", you will find the "Reimport All Maven Projects".
I think it's "Reload All Maven Projects" now. It also worked for me when invalidating cache and rebuilding didn't do anything.
I tried: (a) Invalidate cache and restart. (b) Invalidate cache with all the optional options checked. (c) rebuild the project. (d) ./gradle clean build (project built fine) (e) restart IntelliJ Idea. The only solution that worked for me was this one, deleting the .idea folder with the IDE closed, and then rebuilding the project.
|
82

None of the 13 existing answers worked for me. However, I could resolve the issue by first removing all modules:

  1. open File > Project Structure...,
  2. go to Modules tab,
  3. select all modules and press the remove button,

then removing all remaining Maven modules from Maven tool window:

  1. select all modules,
  2. right click on them,
  3. press Remove projects,

and then adding them again in Project tool window:

  1. right click on root pom.xml,
  2. press Add as Maven project,

now unignoring any ignored modules from Maven tool window:

  1. select all ignored (grey) Maven modules,
  2. right click on them,
  3. press Unignore,

and finally rebuilding using Build > Rebuild project. This assumes that a mvn clean install already happened.

Improve this answer

10 Comments

Worked on IntelliJ Ultimate 2019.1.2! Invalidating Caches didn't work.Reimporting the project didn't work. This solution did!
Just tested on 2019.1.3 and yes, this is a working solution
Works for version 2019.3!
Worked for me after updating to 2021.1
I have no idea why this worked, but it did! Thanks! IDEA version 2022.1.2
|
56

Right click your project / Maven (at bottom) / Reimport.

Edit, much later: I also saw this happen much more frequently when I had the Clover plugin installed. Drop that plugin like a bad habit!

In more recent versions (for example 2024.3.1.1) of the IDE, you need to click on the Maven tab and then a tiny button with arrows pointing in a circular direction and then select "Reload All Maven Projects".

Improve this answer

1 Comment

In newer versions (mine 2022.1.2) of IntelliJ, there is a Reload Project position instead of Reimport.
51

In my case the only thing that worked is:

mvn idea:idea

The good thing is that you don't have to delete .idea folder or .iml files and loose all configuration. Everything will be preserved.

(Possibly something like gradle idea works for gradle too).

Improve this answer

1 Comment

Though it temporarily solved my issue and I upvoted, I later discovered that command is obsolate and can cause problems. The official page for the plugins usage states Apache Maven IDEA Plugin (RETIRED). maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-idea-plugin/usage.html
28 
menu -> build -> Rebuild Project

has worked for me

(Invalidating caches without this step doesn't help)

Improve this answer

1 Comment

Same thing helped me - Right click on project -> Rebuild Module <module-name>
20

I did re-import all maven projects. This worked for me.enter image description here

Improve this answer

1 Comment

This one worked for me after trying a lot from the other suggestions.
15

If you added a library to the project structure (rather than via maven, that would be different), be sure it is included as a dependency for the relevant module.

Project Structure -> Modules -> Dependencies

Improve this answer

Comments

12

It's a very annoying problem which happens quite often. Especially after switching to a different git branch. It wasted me way too much time to troubleshoot this kind problem. I have tried all the methods above. But I can't find a reliable way. Here I just summarize those steps which could help in my situation. Jetbrains, please fix this issue to save your customer's precious time.

  1. Make sure do a success command line build (If UT failed, please ignore UT by using -Dmaven.test.skip=true.
  2. In the "Maven Projects" view, try to use "reimport" all the maven project.
  3. In the file menu, use "Invalidate Caches"
  4. Delete .idea folder, basically create the workspace from scratch. (That's the only reliable way can solve this issue)
Improve this answer

4 Comments

Tried all of these and the only thing that worked for me was #4, closing IntelliJ, deleting the .idea folder, and reloading the project. This happened to me after creating a new git branch.
sounds like a bug with intellij, I wonder if there is issue created for that?
Agree, happens to me when any git-related action is performed outside of IntelliJ. Meanwhile, it builds for me just fine, happens only when I'm doing Build > Recompile '<SomeClass.java>' for hot swap. Hence, none of the solutions like "Open/close IntelliJ", "invalidate/rebuild project" and so on, acceptable for me. But it pisses me off seriously.
Deleting the .idea folder is the only way worked for me usually, but the problem is then that I lose a lot of other stuff with that as well
11

In my case the problem was that there was a different repository directory configuration in IntelliJ and in settings.xml file.

Check both repository directories are the same:

IntelliJ (File > Settings > Build,Execution,Deployment > Build Tools > Maven )

IntelliJ Local Repository Configuration

settings.xml (usually in C:\Users\myuser\.m2 or /home/myuser/.m2)

<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd"> ... <localRepository>C:\Users\myuser\.m2\repository</localRepository> ... </settings>

After fixing directories run:

  1. Generate Folders and Update Sources for All Projects

enter image description here

  1. Reimport all maven projects

enter image description here

Improve this answer

1 Comment

Adding the localRepository line in my settings.xml fixed the issue for me. I use Intellij IDEA 2021.1 Community Edition Build#IC-211.6693.111
10

Tried all the above approaches, didn't work. Finally running maven clean install solved it!

Improve this answer

1 Comment

Crazy, but this one actually worked for me... even though org.mapstruct (1.5.1-FINAL) was everywhere in the lists, it simply wouldn't use it to build. mvn clean install actually worked...
9

Quit IntelliJ, remove every .idea directory: 

rm -Rf **/.idea/

and restart.

Improve this answer

3 Comments

This helped for Community Edition 2017.2. I also had to import gradle project after this. 2017 and this problem still occurs.
If your project is simple JAVA project and not Maven project then Don't do this before actually looking at the list of dependencies in : File>Project Structure>Modules>Dependencies. Else you will lose the list of dependencies you would actually need. As one method to solve this issue is by downloading all the Jars listed at above location.
I did this in addition to removing any *.iml files in the source directories to remedy the problem. It doesn't appear that IntelliJ created any new *.iml files for me.
7

I got this error after I changed pom, and I fixed it by execute:

mvn idea:module

it works for me

Improve this answer

1 Comment

This works! I was adding a new jakarta dependency on my pom.xml, and hit re-build on my Intellij IDEA 2025, and then this "package does not exist" error pops up and I got really confused since the packages were already installed. Now when I executed that command it fixes all the problem. Thanks!
6

Invalidate Caches/ Restart and then Build -> Rebuild Project helped for me

Improve this answer

1 Comment

It doesn't help
6

I tried all appreciated answers and none of them solve my problem!

According to Intellij community, there is a bug with Maven builds in 2020.1 and 2020.1.1 versions: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-237320?_ga=2.235486722.203129946.1591253608-322129264.1584010541

Please try to run on 2019.3.4 version (Its worked for me from the first time)

You can download from here

https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/previous.html?_ga=2.190043688.203129946.1591253608-322129264.1584010541

Improve this answer

1 Comment

This workaround about path.macros.xml file has helped me: youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/… 2020.1 works now.
5

Similar to cvdr. Too high a Java version can be the problem.

A collegaue just have this problem with multiple java sources in our test project. She had just updated to a later Intellij and when we investigated none of the rebuild options worked but Intellij seemed to have 'bumped' the project Java settings to Java 11 (I guess it takes highest installed version on upgrade install?) Setting it back to Java8 and the project compiles successfully.

Go File>Project Structure > Project Settings > Project and select the right ones in the drop downs.

Improve this answer

Comments

4

Here is a solution worked for me: Disable the "Use --release option for cross-compilation like the following in intellij idea: got Settings -> Build,Execution,Deployment -> Compiler -> Java Compiler and disable:

Use '--release' option for cross compilation(java 9 and later)

Improve this answer

Comments

3

As someone who only occasionally needs to do Java work, this was very annoying. Inevitably, packages would have been added since the last time I ran our server inside IntelliJ and it would fail to build. I found what seems to be an easier solution: just don't build within IntelliJ. Build from the command line via Maven, then make sure that the run configuration does not list Build as a "Before launch" task.

Improve this answer

Comments

3

I tried

  1. "Maven > Reimport"
  2. Deleting the .idea directory, and reopening the project.
  3. File -> Invalidate Caches/Restart then Build -> Rebuild Project
  4. Deleting what is inside local .m2 folder, and downloading dependencies again.
  5. Running mvn idea:idea in Maven console (Though this command is obsolete, I had to try.)

in different combinations.

But going from Intellij 2020 version to 2019 solved my issue.

Improve this answer

2 Comments

I tried with intellij 2019 but still issue is not resolved any other suggestions.?
Sorry, but it has been a long time since I faced this error and the solution was a result of trial and error. So I don't have anything else than try everything listed here.
3

I had this problem in IntelliJ 2020.3 and tried the invalidate cache option and rebuild, but the problem persisted. The only thing that fixed it was to rename the package and rename it back to what it was originally.

Improve this answer

Comments

2

I had the same problem and it was fixed for me by changing the "Maven home directory" in Settings from "Bundled" to my locally installed maven. Perhaps this triggered some kind of refresh somewhere since I had not changed this setting for months without any issue.

Improve this answer

Comments

2

What happens here is the particular package is not available in the cache. Resetting will help solve the problem.

  1. File -> Invalidate Caches /Restart

  2. Goto terminal and build the project again

    ./gradlew build

This should download all the missing packages again

Improve this answer

Comments

2

If you are trying the suggested ways and still no chance, be sure about your order:

  1. Delete your .idea/
  2. Invalidate and Restart Cache afterwards
  3. Import maven projects from your maven tool

If you did not invalidate and restart cache just after deleting your .idea/, Intellij keeps generating it and that was keeping error in my case.

Improve this answer

Comments

2

I had the same issue with my unit tests. I created tests on my master branch and early everything worked well, no matter what branch I was using. But when I switched again to master branch, tests did not work anymore. What helped me was to:

close intellij -> delete .idea file from directory -> open project again by pom.xml (idk if it matters what way you open the project, but first time when I tried to open it normally by intellij, it still dit not work) -> reload all maven projects from right menu -> rebuild project and that's it, everything works now

Improve this answer

Comments

1

I had the same problem. I fixed it by applying the android-apt plugin https://bitbucket.org/hvisser/android-apt

Improve this answer

1 Comment

It says repository is moved to github.com/littlerobots/android-apt
1

Maven reimport, rebuild and invalidate caches did not work. I solved it by opening a terminal and executing maven clean install in the root folder project. (IntelliJ was opened and I was able to see the IDE updating and triggering reindexation while maven was doing his job)

Improve this answer

Comments

1

The above solutions didn't work for me. I had to add the dependency explicitly in the pom.xml.

Just add your jar under resources/library and then add it as a dependency in your pom.xml like:

 <dependency> <groupId>your-jar-group-id</groupId> <artifactId>artifact-id</artifactId> <version>1.0</version> <scope>system</scope> <systemPath>${basedir}/src/main/resources/library/name-of-jar.jar</systemPath> </dependency>

Try this out if none of the above work.

Improve this answer

2 Comments

I am using intelliJ community edition. I have a jar file that contains class definitions from a project, that I need available in a workspace I use for "Scratch" experimental work. I included the jar file in "Project Structure" > "Modules" > "Dependencies", and that has worked for me in the past. But it keeps saying "cannot find package XYZ" as if it cant locate one of these class definitions that is referenced by an import statement. I tried everything above short of deleting the .idea folder. Your solution worked for me, much thanks.
It turned out that the path had to be relative, because I was storing the jar file somewhere else in my file structure, not located in the project workspace: <systemPath>${basedir}/../../lib-for-jars/classdefs-1.0.jar</systemPath>
1
  1. Delete your .idea/
  2. Invalidate and Restart Cache afterwards
  3. Re-import project
Improve this answer

Comments

1

I tried all answers, but eventually what helped me was changing the Maven from bundled to my own Maven distribution.

I think vice versa (changing from own to bundled) will help as well.

enter image description here

Improve this answer

1 Comment

Thank you very much! After hours trying all the different solutions without success, I've changed my Maven home path from Maven wrapper to Bundled and it solved the problem. JetBrains should really focus on fixing all these very annoying bugs.
1

I solved this problem by updating my local JDK 17 to oracle JDK 17.0.7.

I can't remember which distribution I was using.

Improve this answer

Comments

1
2

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.