[eclipse] Revert to Eclipse default settings

I know there is the option in Eclipse to 'restore defaults'.

The problem is I had imported a .epf to change my editors font/colors.

I'm not a big fan of the changes and would like to go back. I've tried deleting the eclipse folder and downloading a fresh copy, but the styles persist.

I assume there is a config file somewhere that I could possibly delete.

Anyway, if you could help me out here I would appreciate it. I've looked for solutions but they all seem to point to the same answer that doesn't work for me.

go to windows>preferences>Java>Editor>Syntax Coloring go all the way down and click on Restore Defaults & Apply and Close

Just remove .metadata from your eclipse workspace You can find it C:\Users\username\workspace

I was able to solve a similar problem like this:

1. Close the Eclipse IDE
2. Remove the .metadata folder from your eclipse workspace
3. Relaunch eclipse

The only disadvantage is that you have to re-import all your projects.

You can reset to the default color scheme in the Window>Preferences options page. This example will be for resetting a theme used for Java.

Navigate to Windows>Preferences>Java>Editor. Click on Syntax Coloring. Click "Restore Defaults" and "Apply". Then, navigate to General>Editors. Click on Text Editors. Click on "Restore Defaults" and "Apply".

I had the same issue and the above steps cleared up my problem. Also, the Show line numbers check box is on the last page from above.

I went to My workspace

directory/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings/

and then deleted all recently added files !!

I followed the instructions of Ronan on this one and worked well.

rm -r $WORKSPACE_DIR/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings/

Relaunch eclipse.

I had installed the an eclipse preference for colours.

One would think eclipse could make it simpler to remove preferences than this manual process.

I had the same problem. My path back to default was as follows:

1. Install Eclipse Color Themes Plugin (http://www.eclipsecolorthemes.org/)
2. Navigate to Window->Preferences
3. Navigate to General->Appearance->Color Themes
4. Click Restore Defaults, then click Apply

That should take care of it.

Deleting everything under your workspace's .metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.core.runtime\.settings will restore to defaults but you will lose every other setting too. You can selectively undo changes made by importing RainbowDrops.epf

Open RanbowDrops.epf. Mine looks like this

file_export_version=3.0
/instance/ccw.core/ccw.preferences.editor_color.FUNCTION=167,236,33
/instance/ccw.core/ccw.preferences.editor_color.FUNCTION.bold=false
...

/instance/com.adobe.flexide.as.core/asASDocItalic=true
/instance/com.adobe.flexide.as.core/asASDocColor=#626262
...

/instance/com.android.ide.eclipse.ddms/logcat.msg.color.assert=205,22,137
/instance/com.android.ide.eclipse.ddms/logcat.msg.color.debug=123,182,234
...

/instance/com.powerflasher.fdt.ui/AS_CONSTANTS_color=152,118,170
/instance/com.powerflasher.fdt.ui/AS_CORE_color=18,144,195

the lines starting with /instance/ccw.core will go into file ccw.core.prefs. Lines instance/com.adobe.flexide.as.core will go into com.adobe.flexide.as.core.prefs and so on. You need to delete those files only. There are quite a lot of them though (i had to delete 53), easy way to sift them is to find the first one and sort by modification time they will group together.

BTW there is nice dark theme available by default in eclipse 4.7 (2017). You can try and switch color themes without this kind of hassle by installing Eclipse Color Themes plugin, it also has good selection of dark color themes too.

I ran into a similar situation for Network Preferences. Launching eclipse.exe with the clean option helped in my case

I am not an expert on this, but I'll share my example with you. One guy suggested to create new eclipse preferences file or epf file using another clean install of eclipse. I made a file called clean.epf and compared it with RainbowDrops.epf (the one which messed up my highlighting and such). I noticed a huge difference between the two epf files. So, you might not want to use this method.

The whole windows --- preferences thing did not help. So, I just closed eclipse. Went to

My workspace directory/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings/

and deleted the file org.eclipse.ui.editors.prefs and opened eclipse. It works. BTW, keep a back up of your .settings folders just in case.

In case you want to see some difference between rainbow and clean epf -

Rainbow -

file_export_version=3.0
/instance/ccw.core/ccw.preferences.editor_color.FUNCTION=167,236,33
/instance/ccw.core/ccw.preferences.editor_color.FUNCTION.bold=false
/instance/ccw.core/ccw.preferences.editor_color.FUNCTION.enabled=true
/instance/ccw.core/ccw.preferences.editor_color.FUNCTION.italic=false
/instance/ccw.core/ccw.preferences.editor_color.GLOBAL_VAR=141,218,248
...more here

Clean (exporting all) -

/instance/org.eclipse.jdt.ui/tabWidthPropagated=true
/instance/org.eclipse.mylyn.monitor.ui/org.eclipse.mylyn.monitor.activity.tracking.enabled.checked=true
/instance/org.eclipse.mylyn.tasks.ui/org.eclipse.mylyn.tasks.ui.filters.nonmatching.encouraged=true
@org.eclipse.mylyn.monitor.ui=3.13.0.v20140702-2155
/instance/org.eclipse.jdt.ui/useQuickDiffPrefPage=true
...more here

Clean (exporting only java) -

file_export_version=3.0
/instance/org.eclipse.jdt.ui/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.formatterprofiles.version=12
@org.eclipse.jdt.ui=3.10.100.v20140905-1343
\!/=
...end of file

So, I am not sure if this is the best way to go.

The settings of plugins, including the core ones, are saved in the [workspace_dir]/.metadata/.plugins directories ([workspace_dir] refers to the workspace directory you use).

So if you remove the [workspace_dir]/.metadata, you will reset all the properties defined (which will include all the properties, not only the font ones). Another idea is to create and use a new workspace. Be careful, as your code source may be located in your [workspace_dir]/ directory.

But why don't you just use Use System Font button in the Eclipse Properties dialog?

Just delete your .metadata folder in your workspace and start eclipse....:)

• Window > Preferences > Editors > Restore Defaults

• Window > Preferences > Java > Editor > Syntax Coloring > Restore Defaults

• Window > Preferences > JavaScript > Editor > Syntax Coloring > Restore Defaults

• Window > Preferences > Web > CSS Files > Editor > Syntax Coloring > Restore Defaults

• Window > Preferences > Web > HTML Files > Editor > Syntax Coloring > Restore Defaults

• Window > Preferences > Web > JSP Files > Editor > Syntax Coloring > Restore Defaults

• Window > Preferences > XML > DTD Files > Syntax Coloring > Restore Defaults

• Window > Preferences > XML > XML Files > Editor > Syntax Coloring > Restore Defaults

• Window > Preferences > XML > XSL > Syntax Coloring > Restore Defaults

• Window > Preferences > Data Management > SQL Development > SQL Editor > Syntax Coloring > Restore Defaults

Try switching between different Themes option available in General->Appearance->Colors and Fonts.

I earlier used Dark theme in Juno. Then reverted to Windows 7 classic theme but was left with Black background. And that led me to this question. Having not found any solution I finally tried with Windows XP Olive and to my amazement black background was restored to default.

Open any java class -> Right clic -> Checkstyle -> Clear Checkstyle vilolations. It works for me.

None of the answers above worked for me for Mars, so I took drastic measures.

• Possibly optional: Donwload newest version of Eclipse from their website
• Possibly optional: Find where your executable of current Eclipse's at, and remove the whole folder (you can't uninstall Eclipse through Configurations because it never really installs itself on the system)
• Remove the .metadata folder inside your workspace folder, e.g. C:/Users/bram/Documents/workspace/.metadata (you can leave the projects as they were)
• Remove the .eclipse folder inside {User}, e.g. C:/Users/bram/.eclipse
• Optional: clean file system (and registry?) with a tool such as CCleaner

The last step is definitely optional, but I'm not sure about the first two. In other words, I can't confirm that the corrupted files were inside eclipse's executable folder, inside .eclipse or inside the workspace's .metadata. I'm pretty sure .metadata isn't the culprit since I'd already removed that before so my guess is that the folder .eclipse in {User} is the cause!

If you've tried my steps, please comment whether or not they helped you and which removed folder you think solved it.

To switch back to eclipse's original theme go to window > preferences > General(click on drop down) > Appearance(do not click on drop down) > Themes: Light (in drop down menu) > Apply and close. Now restart eclipse.

It helped me to get back the original eclipse theme.

It is simple.

First, you open eclipse but with workspace different with workspace you have working. then, you choose File / Export / --> General / Preferences --> choose to folder which you want to pick the file *.epf

Second, you open eclipse with workspace you want to work. Then choose File / Import / --> General / Preferences --> choose to folder which you had picked the file *.epf and OK

Have fun!

I encountered this problem also, I went with the second answer, however, I only removed /.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings - this way I was able to preserve my workspace settings (source code etc)

Going forward I would recommend downloading the Eclipise Color Theme Plugin from http://www.eclipsecolorthemes.org/ - This allows you to switch between a range of color themes easily, and easily switch back to 'Default'

you need to do the process for all individual languages you work on...

To me the first answer by Rikus Khan was almost what I needed. It wasn't enough to go to ,e.g. General > Editors > Text editors and click Restore Defaults. I had to choose every single subcategory, namely: Accessibility, Annotations, Hyperlinking, etc., and manually restore their defaults as well. Apparently restoring defaults doesn't propagate down the tree.

The problem I had was the underscoring of warnings and errors in Java editor changed to highliting (after importing RainbowDrops.epf, recommended by the MoonRise UI Theme) and didn't want to revert when changing syntax coloring and other related options. This option itself is located in the aforementioned Annotations > Errors and Warnings.

Not even a single answer of the above let me able to get the original theme as I expected. I tried myself & got my default theme by changing the workspace. This led me to the original theme (same-to-same) that I used to saw when installing eclipse !

I had similar issue, I imported a color theme and didn't like it. I never thought reverting will be so much trouble. I installed a color theme plugin "Eclipse Color Theme 0.14.0."

I went to Windows-->preferences-->General-->Appearance-->Color Theme. I selected the Default option. It reverted to default.

Hope this helps!

"Restore Defaults" is not working.

You must remove the all file in the /.../workspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings/ directory.

I was having this problem in Eclipse Luna (4.4.2)

1. Exit Eclipse
2. Deleted the following under the .metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings directory
   • com.aptana.theme.prefs
   • com.github.eclipsecolortheme.prefs
   • org.eclipse.e4.ui.css.swt.theme.prefs
3. Started Eclipse
4. In Preferences > General > Appeareance > Color Theme > check "Set all background colors to default"

Without step 4. a vertical strip near line numbers remained the older background color