'readObject()' or 'writeObject()' not declared 'private'

Reports Serializable classes where the readObject or writeObject methods are not declared private. There is no reason these methods should ever have a higher visibility than private.

A quick-fix is suggested to make the corresponding method private.

Example:

  public class Test implements Serializable {
    public void readObject(ObjectInputStream stream) {
      /* ... */
    }
  }

After the quick-fix is applied:

  public class Test implements Serializable {
    private void readObject(ObjectInputStream stream) {
      /* ... */
    }
  }

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.

NonPrivateSerializationMethod

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 | Serialization issues

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 NonPrivateSerializationMethod

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