How does the FetchMode work in Spring Data JPA

I think that Spring Data ignores the FetchMode. I always use the @NamedEntityGraph and @EntityGraph annotations when working with Spring Data

@Entity
@NamedEntityGraph(name = "GroupInfo.detail",
  attributeNodes = @NamedAttributeNode("members"))
public class GroupInfo {

  // default fetch mode is lazy.
  @ManyToMany
  List<GroupMember> members = new ArrayList<GroupMember>();

  …
}

@Repository
public interface GroupRepository extends CrudRepository<GroupInfo, String> {

  @EntityGraph(value = "GroupInfo.detail", type = EntityGraphType.LOAD)
  GroupInfo getByGroupName(String name);

}

Check the documentation here

First of all, @Fetch(FetchMode.JOIN) and @ManyToOne(fetch = FetchType.LAZY) are antagonistic because @Fetch(FetchMode.JOIN) is equivalent to the JPA FetchType.EAGER.

Eager fetching is rarely a good choice, and for predictable behavior, you are better off using the query-time JOIN FETCH directive:

public interface PlaceRepository extends JpaRepository<Place, Long>, PlaceRepositoryCustom {

    @Query(value = "SELECT p FROM Place p LEFT JOIN FETCH p.author LEFT JOIN FETCH p.city c LEFT JOIN FETCH c.state where p.id = :id")
    Place findById(@Param("id") int id);
}

public interface CityRepository extends JpaRepository<City, Long>, CityRepositoryCustom { 
    @Query(value = "SELECT c FROM City c LEFT JOIN FETCH c.state where c.id = :id")   
    City findById(@Param("id") int id);
}