Rider on Windows seems to rely on old versions of user data in Appdata/Local

Hello Ben, Thanks for contacting Rider support. This is not expected behavior. AppData/Local/Jetbrains directory is usually the system directory which contains caches and local history files. Deleting it shouldn't affect Rider settings. By default, Rider settings are saved in config directory, e.g. %APPDATA%\JetBrains\<product><version>. 

Please verify if a custom config directory is specified: Go to Help | Diagnostic Tools | Special File and Folders. If there is nothing wrong, please collect Rider logs via Help | Collect Logs and Diagnostic Data. You can upload it to our server (https://uploads.jetbrains.com/) and share the ID.

Meanwhile, you can still import the settings from the previous version: File | Manage IDE settings | Import Settings (choose the entire config folder)

Hello Tom, thanks for the reply.

I understand that AppData/Local is the cache and AppData/Roaming is the config directory. That is set correctly in ‘Special Files and Folders’. But I think you have misunderstood the problem.

I fully expect the cache/local directory to include local data such as the recent projects list. But my question is - why does deleting an old cache, for a version I am no longer using, wipe out the recent projects list? Why did deleting the 2025.3 cache break the recent projects list when I load up 2026.1?

(I also don't know why it prompted me to import settings. It is not doing that any more. I haven't opened an existing project since this happened.)

Hello Ben, I wanted to clarify that the recent project list is stored in the config directory (specifically in the /options/recentSolutions.xml file), not the system directory. The behavior you’re seeing—being prompted to import settings—typically occurs when the config directory is missing or deleted.

This makes me wonder if a custom config directory was configured and later accidentally deleted.

To help diagnose the issue, could you please share the logs mentioned in my previous request? They may provide useful clues about what happened.

I have `recentSolutions.xml` in all the `old_version/options` directories, so it is good to see that the data isn't lost (now that I restored the directories).

But there is no file of that name in the `2026.1/options` directory. It obviously is not migrating that data across when it creates the new directory for the latest version. That seems like a bug to me.

I have never set up any custom config directory for any Jetbrains IDE in the many years I have been using them. I didn't even know it was possible.

I'm afraid I am not willing to share the logs as there is far too much indiscriminate information collected in that bundle. If you have a specific log or part of a log that would be relevant, I can check it and share. (Also: Jetbrains should probably have a more specific approach to log gathering that doesn't just grab every single thing and drop it into a zip file - if there is a feature request for this, I'd like to see it so that I can vote for it.)

When upgrading Rider, it typically migrates and imports settings from the previous version. However, it seems something went wrong during this process in your case.

While we can’t pinpoint the exact cause without logs, such issues are usually one-time occurrences and shouldn’t persist. Since you still have the config directory from the previous version, you can manually restore your settings by:

1. Going to File | Manage IDE Settings | Import Settings.
2. Selecting the entire config folder:
   %APPDATA%\JetBrains\<product><version>

This should restore your recent project list.

Afterward, you can safely delete the old system folders from AppData\Local\JetBrains directory and check if the issue recurs.

If the problem persists, please share the idea.log file from the log directory. This is the minimal log we need to start troubleshooting—we’ll review it and let you know if additional logs are required.