Method does not call super method

Reports methods that override a super method without calling it. This is also known as a refused bequest. Such methods may represent a failure of abstraction and cause hard-to-trace bugs.

The inspection doesn't report methods overridden from java.lang.Object, except for clone(). The clone() method should by convention call its super method, which will return an object of the correct type.

Example 1:

  class A {
    @Override
    public Object clone() {
      // does not call 'super.clone()'
      return new A();
    }
  }

Example 2:

  interface I {
    default void foo() {}
  }

  class A implements I {
    // warning on method when
    // 'Ignore 'default' super methods' is disabled
    @Override
    public void foo(){}
  }

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

MethodDoesntCallSuperMethod

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | Java | Inheritance issues

Configure the inspection:

Use the Only report when super method is annotated by option to ignore super methods marked with the annotations from the provided list. You can manually add annotations to the list.
Use the Ignore empty super methods option to ignore super methods that are either empty or only throw an exception.
Use the Ignore 'default' super methods option to ignore default super methods from interfaces.

Inspection options

Here you can find the description of settings available for the Method does not call super method inspection, and the reference of their default values.

Only report when super method is annotated by: Default value:
Selected
Ignore empty super methods: Default value:
Not selected
Ignore 'default' super methods: Default value:
Not selected

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection MethodDoesntCallSuperMethod

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2, Qodana for JVM 2025.2,

Last modified: 18 September 2025