How to remove project in PyCharm?

This is for PyCharm 2019.1, but I can bet this will work in previous versions.

I am assuming you are in a Unix based operating system (macOs or any Linux distribution). I am also assuming you have currently opened the project you want to remove.

1. Close the project by going to File → Close Project:

   

    

2. Remove the project from Pycharm's Welcome Window:

3. Locate your project and delete it, you can use several alternatives, but I encourage you to use the following

$ rm -rf /path/to/your/project/directory

The previous command will work in macOS and Linux. In Windows, you can delete it manually by locating the projects directory using File Explorer.

That's it, the project has been completely deleted!

1. click the project you want to remove.
2. menu bar Edit-> Remove from Project View.

There is a difference between PyCharm projects and the list of recently opened projects (File → Open recent...):

• The PyCharm project is simply an arbitrary folder¹ with the appropriate .idea subfolder in it.

• The list of recently opened projects is simply the list of paths to some of such folders.

PyCharm does not keep the list of all projects, so you may safely delete a project folder (or its .idea subfolder) from your file system.

But if you have a bad luck, the path to your project directory is already listed in the list of recently opened projects, and if you try opening it with File → Open recent..., then

1. in older version of PyCharm, the deleted folder is re-created (as a new folder with only the .idea subfolder in it),

2. in newer versions of PyCharm you get the prompt similar as

   The path C:\Users\you\PycharmProjects\deleted_project does not exist.
   If it is on a removable or network drive, please make sure that the drive is connected.

   with buttons "OK" and "Remove From List", so you may simply remove the deleted folder from the list,

3. in all version of PyCharm, if you deleted only the .idea subfolder, it is silently re-created (but all your project settings are lost, of course).

To prevent from the uncomfortable consequence of the 1^st possibility of using the File → Open recent... to re-create already deleted project, follow e.g. the first two instructions in the Simin Jie's answer.

¹ generally a subfolder of the PyCharmProjects folder in your user profile directory (e.g. if you created it with File → New Project... and accepted the offered default path).

In PyCharm 2018 I finally had to resort to deleting .idea folder and the project went away.

In 2021 maybe another way to do it. My problem was in project with user directory (root was /Users) that contains too many not Python files, and it triggers some problems with Git and file index.

What I did:

• show hidden files (Cmd + Shift + .),
• find .idea directories,
• delete all .idea directories.
• open PyCharm and add project from correct directory.

That's it.