Wildcard (**) path not catching all other paths in Spring Boot/Angular app

I have a Spring Boot (3.4.4) on java (24 2025-03-18) and Angular (19.2.5) application:

I have a routing array

export const routes: Routes = [
{path: '', component: HomePageComponent},
{path: 'aboutMe', component: AboutMeComponent},
...
//{path: '**', component: PageNotFoundComponent},
{path: '**', component: PageNotFoundComponent, pathMatch: 'full'}
];


where routes work when I try localhost/aboutMe, but when I try something like localhost/about:

Whitelabel Error Page
This application has no explicit mapping for /error, so you are seeing this as a fallback.

Mon Apr 07 14:21:23 EDT 2025
There was an unexpected error (type=Not Found, status=404).


and in the inspect window says:

http://localhost:8080/about 404 (Not Found)


and as you can see I have tried both pathMatch and without.

If I use my webpage to go to /aboutMe it will work then likewise I refresh and get the error.

I do have connection between the Angular front end and Java backend because I know

this.httpClient.get<any[]>('/resource');


and then a subscribe

this.aboutMeService.getAboutMeService().subscribe(
(data) => { info = data; });


results in data being returned from the Java backend

Everything else in my app works fine. If I try just an Angular project with no Java backend the wildcard path works. I understand the cause is from the backend Java server not having the end points, but I want to make it so when a URL is typed in it won't hit the backend unless I have code to make it do so.

More simply I want my Angular code to make the requests to the Java backend, not the URL.

How can I get this functionality?

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