IntelliJ IDEA 13.1 is missing Run/Debug windows

Question

After updating my IntelliJ IDEA (from 13.0.3 to 13.1) the Run/Debug windows do not show. The corresponding menu entries in View | Tool Windows are deactivated.

I have tried editing .idea/workspace.xml or using the plugin "ToolWindow Manager" to show them manually, however then the windows are empty - no buttons or anything.

Help | About shows the correct Java JRE.

How can I bring them back?

Update: problem solved, see comments: examine log file and uninstall the plugin that is throwing an exception

Answer 1

Perhaps you have a plugin that is disrupting the execution of the ide?

I had very similar issue today when upgrading from 13.0 to 13.1. None of my gradle tasks were running and the Run/debug windows were not appearing. When I started one of my run targets it froze and did not start until I exited the IDE.

After looking at the idea logs in [userdir]/.IdeaIC13/system/log I found the idea.log riddled with exceptions from the plugin GrepConsole. I probably had an old version of this plugin. To resolve the issue I just uninstalled the plugin using the IDEA plugin uninstall feature. After restarting IDEA 13.1 the IDE is working just fine.

A support request was sent to Intellij on this with these findings:

https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/requests/24625

and also the author of the GrepConsole plugin was alerted here: http://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7125?pr=phpStorm

Answer 2

For me the windows were simply under "Services". (Alt+8)