'What does the yellow background on filename mean in Intellij?
Solution 1:[1]
This color indicates the non-project files (libraries), you can customize it here:
Make sure to restart the debugger for the changes to have effect.
Solution 2:[2]
If this suddenly happens to your project:
Consider closing pycharm and deleting the .idea/ folder of that project.
After reopening the project the project, pycharm will detect all files as normal. But you'll need to set up the project again. -> Set source-folder, add run configuration etc.
For me that was the faster solution than figuring out how to fix it.
One more mention: It happened after a merge which caused some version conflicts and required to "roll back" a file.
Solution 3:[3]
This also happened to me and the cause was that the project folder was removed from the 'project structure'. You can re-add it in Settings-> Project <...> -> Project Structure.
See also the documentation: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/configuring-project-structure.html
Solution 4:[4]
The above solution did not work for me -- by happenstance, I was clicking around the settings in Intellij/GoLand and stumbled across a solution that worked for me.
When I went to the Project Structure, the Project Structure pane was empty and there was no way for me to manually re-add my project directory.
Fix that worked for me:
Top Menu Bars -> File -> Repair IDE
A bubble window shows up on the bottom right, and I just clicked through the tooltips to repair different aspects of Intellij. In my case, the 'Reindex Project Structure" step worked for me (it was Step 3 of 6 in the repair process).
After repairing + waiting a bit for the project to reindex, everything went back to normal.
Sources
This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Source: Stack Overflow
| Solution | Source |
|---|---|
| Solution 1 | CrazyCoder |
| Solution 2 | chris |
| Solution 3 | Framester |
| Solution 4 | Steven Gates |



