IntelliJ IDEA Reopen Project "The path <insert temp path here> does not exist" error

Question

Here's a fun one. I did search for this issue but didn't seem to find anything that helped, including the following questions which seemed most closely related:

Why am I getting "Local path does not exist" from my Android project in IntelliJ IDEA?

IntelliJ IDEA: Project SDK Settings is not retained after reopenning IDE

Version info: MacBook Pro mid-2014 (Intel), Big Sur 11.2.1

IntelliJ IDEA 2021.2.2 (Community Edition) Build #IC-212.5284.40, built on September 13, 2021 Runtime version: 11.0.12+7-b1504.28 x86_64 VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM by JetBrains s.r.o. macOS 11.2.1

Kotlin: 212-1.5.10-release-IJ5284.40

Issue description: On opening an existing project, importing the related module, and selecting the SDK, everything works fine. However, the recent projects list shows what appears to be a random, temporary path to the project IML:

The path you see in the screenshot is not the path that leads to the IML. Not even by a long shot. This is created when opening the project initially but, on exiting IDEA, it seemingly disappears and I have to reimport the project all over again. I am stumped here. I spent a couple of days digging through SO, and the internet in general but can't seem to find anything related to this specific error or anything that has helped at all. Any input would be great. This is on a fresh installation of IDEA, and I have cleared the caches with no observable effect.

Answer 1

You can try "open" button on the IDE welcome page, I made it.

Answer 2

Try to close the project and the IDE, open the project root directory in the OS file explorer, delete all.iml files and the .idea directory, and reimport the project from existing sources