Protected nested class

Reports protected nested classes.

Example:

  public class Outer {
    protected static class Nested {} // warning
    protected class Inner {}         // warning
    protected enum Mode {}           // warning depends on the setting
    protected interface I {}         // warning depends on the setting
  }

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.

ProtectedInnerClass

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 | Encapsulation

Configure the inspection:

Use the Ignore 'protected' inner enums option to ignore protected inner enums.
Use the Ignore 'protected' inner interfaces option to ignore protected inner interfaces.

Inspection options

Here you can find the description of settings available for the Protected nested class inspection, and the reference of their default values.

Ignore 'protected' inner enums: Default value:
Not selected
Ignore 'protected' inner interfaces: 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 ProtectedInnerClass

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