I have this weird issue where the following happens:
- fresh eclipse juno install (with all updates applied)
- works fine for a while asking which workspace I want to open with a dialog on startup
- after a few days it stops prompting me for workspace, opens blank made up workspace instead in /Users/myself/Documents
If I check "preferences -> workspace -> startup and shutdown" everything seems fine, the only workspace in the list is the one I created and the checkbox that says "don't prompt for workspace" is not checked.
This happened a few times already on fresh eclipse installations and fresh hard drives (same machine but I replaced the hard drive, re-installed OS and everything for other reasons and now it happened again).
I am on:
- OSX 10.7.5
- Eclipse Juno (Service release 2)
Any help appreciated!
I have exactly the same problem on OSX, for no reason, one fine day, Eclipse will start-up with a new blank workspace!
And to all the stupid answers and responders out there: YES I know how to set and select a default workspace! And NO creating a new workspace, re-importing lots of projects and loosing all my 30+ database connections under my Toad Extension, is not an option.
What I found is that
- For some reason Eclipse creates a directory
/Users/user_name/Documents/workspace
which is the blank workspace it starts-up with (incorrectly)
- My usual workspace is under
/Users/user_name/Documents/Development/eclipse
The solution is (this is on Mac OSX, don't know if it is the same on Windows):
- Goto your Eclipse directory where you run Eclipse from (mine is
/Applications/eclipse
)
- In
{eclipse_dir}/configuration
open the file config.ini
- Find the line
osgi.instance.area.default=@user.home/...
and confirm that it is pointing to the bogus workspace directory.
- Modify the path of this entry to point to the correct workspace
- Save the
config.ini
file.
- Try starting Eclipse and it should open your workspace now.
- If your Eclipse get stuck loading plugins now, goto your workspace directory and look for the
.metadata
directory (its hidden). Inside the .metadata
directory, remove the .mylyn
directory and restart Eclipse.
- Once Eclipse started with the correct workspace loaded, do a proper Eclipse shutdown to ensure your workspace is closed and saved properly.
This worked for Eclipse Juno.
Hope this helps!
Just running this command helped me
eclipse.exe -data C:\Development\Eclipse\Workspace
FYI this happens due to install of some plugins.
This same problem happened to me on Windows on two separate Eclipse installations, without installing any plugin.
I was able to get my working Workspace by clicking on File > Switch Workspace, but closing and opening Eclipse again would reset it to a default Workspace.
What apparently solved this was to force Eclipse to save Workspace settings by ticking the Prompt for workspace on startup setting in General > Startup and Shutdown > Workspaces, which I had turned off.
The next time Eclipse opened, it asked me for the Workspace, and it had my correct one first in the list. I asked not to be prompted again for it and now it opens the right workspace when I launch Eclipse once again.
I solved this problem as per JJ-za's answer, except steps 2 and 3:
In {eclipse_dir}/configuration/.settings open the file org.eclipse.ui.ide.prefs (when Eclipse is not running)
Find the line RECENT_WORKSPACES=
and confirm that the workspace is pointing to the correct workspace directory and that multiple workspaces are separated by \n