Spring's AOP may be among the worst offenders.

The OP suggested that they had already done this, but here's how you can disable stepping into specified classes (IntelliJ ULTIMATE 2018.2):

File -> Settings... -> Build, Execution, Deployment -> Debugger -> Stepping

... Do not step into the classes -> Add Pattern -> Enter the filter pattern:

... ... org.springframework.aop.*

Notice that you can use wildcards to disable entire namespaces -- so for example, assuming that your organization's namespace starts with com, you can get most of the way there by blacklisting org.*.

Answer from Brent Bradburn on Stack Overflow
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JetBrains
jetbrains.com โ€บ help โ€บ idea โ€บ stepping-through-the-program.html
Step through the program | IntelliJ IDEA Documentation
January 23, 2026 - Alternatively, it can be invoked only when you expressly do so. To configure this feature, go to Settings | Build, Execution, Deployment | Debugger | Stepping and set the Always do smart step into option as required.
Discussions

java - Debugger only stops at breakpoints, will not "step over" - Stack Overflow
I'm debugging inside IntelliJ idea but I'm not sure that is the problem. The debugger correctly stops at all lines where I've put a break point but never else so F8, "step over" doesn't work. More on stackoverflow.com
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IntelliJ: unable to debug
Viewpoints? You mean Breakpoints? You have to make sure that the code where you set your Breakpoints is actually executed at some point, it doesn't just jump there because you placed it More on reddit.com
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April 30, 2022
Why IntelliJ IDEA stucks at "stepping over" while debug? - Stack Overflow
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments. ... It's not that. It must be an IntelliJ bug. I have this sometimes too. The code should execute within milliseconds but the IDE just gets stuck. Even for simple methods like getter. Sometimes, after several minutes, it ... More on stackoverflow.com
๐ŸŒ stackoverflow.com
IntelliJ IDEA Python debugging behaving differently; no automatic step-out at a return when doing step-over, instead full continued execution until next breakpoint is hit. It never did that before.
You could try clearing the ide cache and restart. But you should use PyCharm for python if it is your primary language More on reddit.com
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September 5, 2024
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ community โ€บ posts โ€บ 360001209459-Can-t-step-into-code-in-debugger
Can't step into code in debugger โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
October 10, 2018 - But I realized that my test does not need @SpyBean, so I changed it to @Autowired and I am able to step through each line of code as I normally would.
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ articles โ€บ 206560589-What-to-do-if-debugger-doesn-t-work-as-expected
What to do if debugger doesn't work as expected? โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
December 1, 2024 - Stepping problems. Debugger performance issues. Please, find more details in our blog post. ... This still happens with attach to process GDBs. ... It will be a good idea to write exactly this mini-tutorial as it is in CLion. For example there is no "Help|Show Log" option, but "Show Log in File Manager" ... Tau, what is not clear from the instruction, except for the path to find logs in the menu (which differs for every platform, so I guess Show Log was enough to get it, but could extend)?
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ community โ€บ posts โ€บ 206865795-Debugger-not-highlighting-current-line-when-breaking-stepping
Debugger not highlighting current line when breaking/stepping โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
F8 still works, I can see changes in the debugger window, but there is no blue line showing the currrent line, only the current line number in the debugger window. Is this a known issue or some new setting in IntelliJ? It makes source-line debugging impossible.
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ community โ€บ posts โ€บ 14714462795538-Can-t-step-into-functions-at-all
Can't step into functions at all โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
Non-Bundled Plugins: org.editorconfig.editorconfigjetbrains (232.9921.30) PlantUML integration (7.3.0-IJ2023.2) idea.plugin.protoeditor (232.9559.10) org.mvnsearch.jetbrains.plugins.rsocket-jetbrains-plugin (0.16.0) com.tang (1.4.8-IDEA231) com.intellij.ml.llm (232.9826) org.sonarlint.idea (9.1.0.75538) ... Please enable debugger logging as described here, reproduce the issue, and send the resulting idea.log file (`Help | Show Log in ...`) to clion-support at jetbrains.com so that we can take a look. Do not forget to disable debug logging after that.
Find elsewhere
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ community โ€บ posts โ€บ 115000660390-Cannot-Step-Into-Code-at-Breakpoints
Cannot Step Into Code at Breakpoints โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
October 15, 2017 - The weird thing about this is doesn't console.log anything either which makes you think it's not being run but clearly if I put debug points it's definitely getting to the function definition and to the final return statement of renderPlayerOrBanner ... I'd suggest setting breakpoint at the first line of method body (console.log or whatever it is) and, once breakpoint is hit, use Step Over to step through the method
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ articles โ€บ 206544799-Java-slow-performance-or-hangups-when-starting-debugger-and-stepping
Java: slow performance or hangups when starting debugger and stepping โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
September 8, 2025 - Websphere 8.5 would hang/crash after stepping over a break point. Closing the memory tab fixed the issue. ... Happens on Windows + Webstom + Chrome debugger. Since connecting the client to 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost no delays observed. Everything else including IntelliJ works fine on this workstation.
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JetBrains
jetbrains.com โ€บ help โ€บ idea โ€บ debugging-your-first-java-application.html
Tutorial: Debug your first Java application | IntelliJ IDEA Documentation
February 10, 2026 - After the debugger session has started, the program runs normally until a breakpoint is hit. When this happens, IntelliJ IDEA pauses the program, highlights the line at which the program is suspended, and shows the Debug tool window. The highlighted line has not been executed yet.
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ community โ€บ posts โ€บ 115000082004-DEBUG-Idea-doesn-t-step-in-code-from-other-module
DEBUG: Idea doesn't step in code from other module โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
Of course, not related to keymap settings. it works, after all, in own module. I might attach a sample project later on, but cannot afford to work on broken idea version yet. In the meantime, if you wanna try some more, do the following: create simple maven project, two modules, of which one depends on the other. In the module with the dependency, create a junit test class with two test methods: testA can step in all the execution steps in class/method from own module
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Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com โ€บ questions โ€บ 79613924 โ€บ why-intellij-idea-stucks-at-stepping-over-while-debug
Why IntelliJ IDEA stucks at "stepping over" while debug? - Stack Overflow
Show activity on this post. If you "step over" a line of code that has a method call, the implementation of the method is skipped by the debugger, but keep in mind that it is still being executed.
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Reddit
reddit.com โ€บ r/jetbrains โ€บ intellij idea python debugging behaving differently; no automatic step-out at a return when doing step-over, instead full continued execution until next breakpoint is hit. it never did that before.
r/Jetbrains on Reddit: IntelliJ IDEA Python debugging behaving differently; no automatic step-out at a return when doing step-over, instead full continued execution until next breakpoint is hit. It never did that before.
September 5, 2024 -

Hi everyone, I've got a problem with IntelliJ IDEA when debugging a Python program. For some reason I observe the following behavior, which is unintuitive and I'm not used to it. It used to work differently, I'm pretty sure about that.

I have a breakpoint in a function. The debugger stops at that breakpoint. I step through the function with "Step Over F8". So far, so good, that works.

However, when I reach the end of the function (return) and hit F8 (step over) again, I would expect (and I'm sure it did so in the past) the debugger to step out of the function and continue step-by-step outside of the function, right after the function got called and returned. Instead, it just fully continues execution until the next breakpoint is hit. That's not what I want. I want F8 to again step out of a function at a return and pause execution right after the call of the function to be able to continue manual stepping outside of it. That's what it used to do. Why is it not doing that anymore?

Thank you!

IDEA version is 2024.2.1
Python Plugin version is 241.18034.62
Python version is 3.12.4

Update 1

Behavior seems somewhat erratic. When I add a breakpoint at the next expression after the function call at runtime, it is completely ignored, behavior as described above. When I add a breakpoint at the next expression after the call before starting the debugging session, the debugger steps out of the function, not even hitting the outside breakpoint yet. It works as I would expect it to work without the outside breakpoint, stepping out. When I remove the outside breakpoint, the behavior is again as described above, not stepping out.

I do not understand this behavior, it's completely unintuitive and currently makes my job really slow and exhausting.

Update 2

Runtime environment by the way is pytest, running the function from a unit test. Not directly, but as part of a bigger test.

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JetBrains
youtrack.jetbrains.com โ€บ issue โ€บ PY-37426 โ€บ Debugger-step-into-step-over-not-working-anymore
Debugger step into step over not working anymore
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Coderanch
coderanch.com โ€บ t โ€บ 766989 โ€บ intellij-idea โ€บ ide โ€บ skip-external-libraries-debugging-IntelliJ
How to skip external libraries during debugging in IntelliJ? (IntelliJ IDEA forum at Coderanch)
January 12, 2023 - In case anyone else finds this post when having a similar problem; my problem was that IntelliJ opened decompiled classes automatically in new tabs (sometimes even String and Object class!). Even if stepping over, not into. Turned out it was the "Show Method Return Values" setting enabled in the debug view: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5010362/can-i-find-out-the-return-value-before-returning-while-debugging-in-intellij Even if I had Java.*-classes and other classes excluded in "Do not step into classes" setting: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20575107/how-to-force-intellij-to-only-step-into-my-source-code IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2.4 Community Edition
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ community โ€บ posts โ€บ 15131087039250-I-cannot-step-into-the-imported-function-from-the-Python-module-using-the-PyCharm-debugger
I cannot step into the imported function from the Python module using the PyCharm debugger โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
If you do that you will be able to step into the function on module1 as desired. ... I can observe that I am navigating the hello_world function (refer to variables a, b, and c in the Debugger). However, my cursor is not visible on the current executing line in module1.py.
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intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ community โ€บ posts โ€บ 17988097636882-Some-of-my-methods-are-refusing-to-unfold-nor-be-debug-stepped-into
Some of my methods are refusing to unfold nor be debug-stepped into. โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
March 29, 2024 - When I try to unfold these methods (whether by side bar arrows, dropmenu, or attempting to edit them) in their intended context, they automatically close themselves, and wont let me access them. I noticed this problem because when trying to step into one of them while debugging, it stepped over the method instead, not letting observe more closly if it was the cause of my code not working; and I really do think my bug is in these methods.
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JetBrains
intellij-support.jetbrains.com โ€บ hc โ€บ en-us โ€บ community โ€บ posts โ€บ 206709925-Ruby-Debug-Step-Over-Not-Working
Ruby Debug Step Over Not Working โ€“ IDEs Support (IntelliJ Platform) | JetBrains
June 23, 2009 - For me, the most annoying thing with that is that the debug session tends to crash the deeper you dig into the internals of Rails (as you're always stepping into and 'step out' also does not work very often). My workaround is to set another breakpoint at the next relevant line and then proceed to that... We've intergrated the latest version of intermediate-java library used to communicate with debugger from java. Fix will be available in coming RubyMine 1.1.1, new Ruby plugin and RubyMine 1.5 EAPs.