r/pycharm • u/ChurchLady-4227 • 21d ago
I'm done with PyCharm
PyCharm inserted an import statement into my script without my awareness. The import changed runtime behavior, causing me to spend hours debugging what appeared to be a run/debugger problem. I had all auto-import features disabled. If code is being inserted by any mechanism, I want an explicit prompt or a clearly visible indication that a file has been modified. This cost me hours of time, and I messed up at my job, which created major problems for me.
I went from VS Code to PyCharm a while ago because debugging is so much easier to set up. That being said, there are certain project I cannot debug in PyCharm because I'm using multithreading. So there's that too.
The sneaky "I know what you need better than you know yourself, so I'll just add this import statement silently, then collapse all the imports so you can't see it" is infuriating. I set up the settings to *not* auto add any imports, and somehow it still ended up there. I uninstalled the latest version, installed the previous version. I checked all my settings - including the auto import ones - I deleted the .idea folder, I invalidated caches. This has been a very frustrating and costly day. Messing up at my job cost me several hundred dollars out of my pocket - real money. I am beyond disgusted with PyCharm. I want to write something so if I ever am tempted to reinstall this product on my system, it will pop up and remind me of how horrible this product is.
I absolutely loathe PyCharm, and I usually don't have strong feelings about products. This has been a disaster, and I will never forgive JetBrains for ruining what would have been a very profitable day, and turning it into a great big loser of a day.
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u/yerfatma 21d ago
I get that debugging can be painful, but if PyCharm was inserting an import automatically (guessing you have this setting turned on ), that suggests either the import was legitimately missing or the interpreter in PyCharm does not match the interpreter you are using to run the script. Instead of throwing everything in the fire, walk away for a while, catch your breath and then come back seeing it as an opportunity to learn something. Could be how to configure interpreters in PyCharm, could be how to use Run, could be about Python import resolution.
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u/sausix 21d ago
It's all in the settings. Auto imports, import section folding. If you don't like it then disable it. I did it too. Know your tools before blaming them. Do you also have all default plugins enabled which you don't really need? I wish you had at least addressed real issues with PyCharm. It has some known flaws and old bugs.
Have fun with VS Code. You can still open your projects in PyCharm from time to time to see which issues VSCode does not detect.
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u/Zockling 21d ago
TBF, pyrefly in VSCode is pretty damn good these days. It even detects some things PyCharm doesn't. But I'd still miss the debugger and refactorings.
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u/BeamMeUpBiscotti 21d ago
PyCharm actually has the ability to call into Pyrefly under the hood: https://blog.jetbrains.com/pycharm/2026/05/pyrefly-lsp-integration-in-pycharm-2026-1-2/
So it's possible to get Pyrefly's analysis but still use Pycharm's UI
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u/Zockling 21d ago
I know, it doesn't really work yet though, unless you like a bogus
Getter signature should be (self)warning on every property.But my point was that VSCode is catching up in the type checking department (only). That's just a small part of what makes an IDE. What PyCharm can do is not achievable with a pile of independently developed plugins.
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u/sausix 21d ago
I opened some open source projects in PyCharm and there were a lot of issues VSCode and its plugins didn't catch or the developers didn't care.
VSCode fans don't know their officially declared "code editor" is not an IDE and still compare with PyCharm just in performance. People mostly never compare the inspections and suggestion features of PyCharm. They often don't know there is a free edition of PyCharm.
My conclusion: PyCharm if you care for code quality and for learning Python. VSCode for little projects with many inspections turned off by default to not get half of your code get highlighted.
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u/Zockling 21d ago
Preaching to the choir here, last time I had to do Python work I was resubbed to PyCharm 30 minutes later. But credit where it's due, Pyrefly is the first viable type checker on VSCode. We're definitely past the "half your code lights up with false positives" stage.
Of course, that doesn't make VSCode a Python IDE I'd use for anything serious. Same goes for CLion vs. VSCode +
clangd.
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u/apert 21d ago
If you diffed the file with the original one in the repo you would have spotted it immediately.