IDE should automatically pick up changes made to files in external editors

[JetForMe]

Describe the request

The IDE should automatically pick up changes made to files from outside the IDE.

Describe the current behavior

In order to more rapidly prototype some code, I develop it in Xcode, and then periodically build in Arduino to see how it works on the device. Every time I make changes externally, the Arduino editor fails to notice, and when I save changes in the IDE, it says something like "The file <> has been changed on the file system, do you want to overwrite it." I almost never want to overwrite it, but I have to answer this for every file that might've changed.

Furthermore, the IDE doesn't see the changes on disk, and continues to show stale contents in the editor tabs. It should refresh these contents so I can seamlessly edit in both environments.

Arduino IDE version

Not specified

Operating system

macOS

Operating system version

15.2

Additional context

Discussion:

https://forum.arduino.cc/t/arduinio-ide-automatically-loading-external-file-changes/1322461/6

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There have been long-standing similar requests: arduino/Arduino#4551

Issue checklist

• I searched for previous requests in the issue tracker
• I verified the feature was still missing when using the latest nightly build
• My request contains all necessary details

[per1234]

Hi @JetForMe. Arduino IDE already does this. It will only pick up the changes to the file on disk if the sketch is in a saved state. This is an intentional design in order to avoid the loss of your unsaved work that is staged in the Arduino IDE editor.

You can ensure the sketch is always in a saved state by enabling the "Auto save" preference. The IDE will then save the sketch automatically whenever you made any edits via the Arduino IDE editor. Of course this setting significantly changes the behavior of Arduino IDE, so you should make sure to consider whether this is something you want, and to adjust your workflow as needed.