How to upgrade Intellij to 2017 on Linux?

Question

I want to upgrade Intellij from 2016.3 to 2017.1. This is a major upgrade, so it is not doable simply by clicking "Upgrade", I have to download a whole new tar.gz. The problem is that I don't want to do a fresh installation, because I have some plugins and configuration I would rather not loose. How can I do it?

Answer 1

Install as you normally do for the new version (unpack into the new empty directory, then run via bin/idea.sh), it will suggest to import the settings from the previous version the first time you start it.

To automate updates you may consider using JetBrains Toolbox App.