Question: I am working on **two different** projects, Both uses different maven `.settings.xml` files.  

When I switch between the projects, it re downloads all the maven dependencies in repository folder removing previous projects' dependencies.  

Is there any way I can use two `settings` and it maintains different repository for both projects.

Answer: 
You can try to separate the two projects in different workspaces and you can configure each workspace with eclipse, it is possible because eclipse saves the configuration within each workspace, so you can specify the different repositories with their maven settings.xml files.

For to do that, launch **eclipse > go to preferences > choose maven > User Settings** and click on **"Update Settings"**

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2hmsE.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2hmsE.png)

**UPDATE:**

You should have a structure similar to the following:

**Workspaces:**

```
/Volumes/Stonehall/juanca/workspace-project-1/
/Volumes/Stonehall/juanca/workspace-project-2/

```

**Repositories:**

```
/Volumes/Stonehall/juanca/.m2/settings-project-1.xml
/Volumes/Stonehall/juanca/.m2/settings-project-2.xml

```

Open and edit **`settings-project-1.xml`** file. Searchs the **`localRepository`** tag and replace the path, for example:

```
<localRepository>/Volumes/Stonehall/juanca/.m2/repository-1/</localRepository>

```

Open and edit **`settings-project-2.xml`** file. Searchs the **`localRepository`** tag and replace with the other path, for example:

```
<localRepository>/Volumes/Stonehall/juanca/.m2/repository-2/</localRepository>

```

*Important: checks that the **`<localRepository>`** tag is not commented for example:*

```
<!--
...
<localRepository>/Volumes/Stonehall/juanca/.m2/repository/</localRepository>
-->

```

**Eclipse:**

Open the **`workspace-project-1`**, go to **preferences > choose maven > User Settings** and click on **"Update Settings"** and replace with the new path:

```
/Volumes/Stonehall/juanca/.m2/settings-project-1.xml

```

The same way you should do for the **`workspace-project-2`**, open the **`workspace-project-2`** and go to **preferences > choose maven > User Settings** and click on **"Update Settings"** and replace with the other path:

```
/Volumes/Stonehall/juanca/.m2/settings-project-2.xml

```

With this configuration each project should download the dependencies in the differents repositories.

*This configuration should work, but in case does not work, you should post your settings.xml file and the pom files of both projects, so that we can help you better*
You can create 2 separate workspaces in Eclipse. In each workspaces, you can provide respective settings.xml file