Correct way to add external jars (lib/*.jar) to an IntelliJ IDEA project

Solution 1:

Steps for adding external jars in IntelliJ IDEA:

1. Click File from the toolbar
2. Select Project Structure option (CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + S on Windows/Linux, ⌘ + ; on Mac OS X)
3. Select Modules at the left panel
4. Select Dependencies tab
5. Select + icon
6. Select 1 JARs or directories option

Solution 2:

IntelliJ IDEA 15 & 2016

1. File > Project Structure...

   

   or press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S

2. Project Settings > Modules > Dependencies > "+" sign > JARs or directories...

   

3. Select the jar file and click on OK, then click on another OK button to confirm

   

   

4. You can view the jar file in the "External Libraries" folder

   

Solution 3:

Just copy-paste the .jar under the "libs" folder (or whole "libs" folder), right click on it and select 'Add as library' option from the list. It will do the rest...

Solution 4:

If you are building your project with gradle, you just need to add one line to the dependencies in the build.gradle:

buildscript {
    ...
}
...

dependencies {
    implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
}

and then add the folder to your root project or module:

Then you drop your jars in there and you are good to go :-)

Solution 5:

You add them as libraries to your module.

I usually have a /lib directory in my source. I put all the JARs I need there, add /lib as a library, and make it part of my module dependencies.

2018 update: I'm using IntelliJ 2017/2018 now.

I'm fully committed to Maven and Nexus for dependency management.

This is the way the world has gone. Every open source Java project that I know of uses Maven or Gradle. You should, too.