Explicit backing fields can be used

Detects properties with backing fields and suggests a refactoring introducing backing fields explicitly using a field keyword.

Example:

  private val _items = mutableListOf()
  val items: List<item> get() = _items
</item>

  val items: List
    field = mutableListOf<item>()
</item>

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.

ConvertToExplicitBackingFields

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 | Kotlin | Style issues

Inspection ID: ConvertToExplicitBackingFields

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 ConvertToExplicitBackingFields

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

IntelliJ IDEA 2026.1

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2026.1, Qodana for JVM 2026.1,

Last modified: 31 March 2026