Have you ever opened Android Studio only to find that the “Android” project view has completely vanished from the dropdown? Even worse, checking the “Build” output reveals a cryptic stack trace starting with: com.intellij.platform.workspace.storage.impl.exceptions.ApplyChangesFromException: Symbolic ID already exists.

This issue often occurs in newer versions of Android Studio (like the 2024/2025 builds like Otter) and usually affects all open projects simultaneously. The IDE’s internal “Workspace Model” database gets corrupted, causing the Gradle sync to fail silently or crash. Here is how to fix it without losing your custom project settings or Git-tracked configurations.

The Symptom

• The “Android” view is missing from the project sidebar dropdown.

• Projects are only shown as a collection of folders (File view).

• "Mark Directory as…" appears in the context menu of source folders.

• The Logcat or Build tab shows a Symbolic ID already exists exception, often mentioning buildSrc or specific Kotlin libraries.

The Cause

This is a collision in the IntelliJ Platform’s internal database. It happens when the IDE tries to register a module or library (like a Kotlin SDK component) that is already indexed under a different ID. Because this is stored in the global IDE cache, simply restarting or cleaning the project often doesn’t help.

The Solution: A Surgical Cache Reset

Since we want to preserve our .idea settings (like Code Styles or Run Configurations) that are often tracked in Git, we should target only the corrupted IDE databases.

Step 1: Clear the Global Workspace Cache

The most effective fix is to delete the specific cache folders where the Workspace Model resides.

1. Close Android Studio completely.

2. Open your terminal and navigate to your Android Studio cache directory (on macOS): cd ~/Library/Caches/Google/AndroidStudio2025.x (adjust for your version).

3. Remove the following folders:

rm -rf global-model-cache/

rm -rf projects/

4. Note: These folders contain metadata about project structures. Deleting them is safe; the IDE will rebuild them on the next launch.

Step 2: Clean the Local Workspace State

If Step 1 isn’t enough, we need to clear the local project state. We avoid deleting the entire .idea folder to save our Git-tracked settings.

1. In your project root, run:

rm -rf .idea/libraries/

rm -rf .idea/modules/

rm -rf .idea/workspace.xml

2. This removes the local library mappings and window layouts while keeping your codeStyles, vcs.xml, and runConfigurations intact.

Step 3: Re-import and Sync

1. Start Android Studio.

2. If the project doesn’t load correctly, go to File > Open and select the build.gradle.kts file of your project.

3. Choose “Open as Project”.

4. Wait for the Gradle Sync to finish. The “Android” view should now be available again.

Conclusion

The Symbolic ID conflict is a “silent killer” of IDE productivity because it doesn’t always throw a visible error. By targeting the global-model-cache, you can fix the underlying database corruption without having to re-configure your entire development environment.

Happy Coding!

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