diff --git a/mflix/server/java-spring/pom.xml b/mflix/server/java-spring/pom.xml
index b52cf20..01fea35 100644
--- a/mflix/server/java-spring/pom.xml
+++ b/mflix/server/java-spring/pom.xml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
     <parent>
         <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
         <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
-        <version>4.0.6</version>
+        <version>4.1.0</version>
         <relativePath/>
     </parent>
 
@@ -20,12 +20,12 @@
 
     <properties>
         <java.version>21</java.version>
-        <mongodb.version>5.9.0</mongodb.version>
-        <springdoc.version>3.0.3</springdoc.version>
+        <mongodb.version>5.10.0</mongodb.version>
+        <springdoc.version>3.1.0</springdoc.version>
         <dotenv.version>5.1.0</dotenv.version>
         <impsort.plugin.version>1.13.0</impsort.plugin.version>
         <byte-buddy.version>1.17.8</byte-buddy.version>
-        <langchain4j.version>1.15.0-beta25</langchain4j.version>
+        <langchain4j.version>1.19.0-beta29</langchain4j.version>
     </properties>
 
     <dependencies>
diff --git a/mflix/server/java-spring/src/main/java/com/mongodb/samplemflix/config/ObjectMapperConfig.java b/mflix/server/java-spring/src/main/java/com/mongodb/samplemflix/config/ObjectMapperConfig.java
index 6be474d..7366c88 100644
--- a/mflix/server/java-spring/src/main/java/com/mongodb/samplemflix/config/ObjectMapperConfig.java
+++ b/mflix/server/java-spring/src/main/java/com/mongodb/samplemflix/config/ObjectMapperConfig.java
@@ -1,15 +1,15 @@
 package com.mongodb.samplemflix.config;
 
-import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonFactory;
-import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.SerializationFeature;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.module.SimpleModule;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype.jsr310.JavaTimeModule;
 import org.bson.types.ObjectId;
+import org.springframework.boot.jackson2.autoconfigure.Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilderCustomizer;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
 import org.springframework.core.io.buffer.DataBufferFactory;
 import org.springframework.core.io.buffer.DefaultDataBufferFactory;
+import org.springframework.http.converter.json.Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilder;
 
 /**
  * Configuration for customizing the ObjectMapper used for JSON serialization and deserialization.
@@ -18,26 +18,21 @@
  * custom serializer for MongoDB's ObjectId to convert it to a string representation.
  *
  * <p>It also registers a JavaTimeModule to handle Java 8 date and time types.
+ *
  */
 
 @Configuration
 public class ObjectMapperConfig {
 
     @Bean
-    public ObjectMapper objectMapper(JsonFactory jsonFactory) {
-        ObjectMapper mapper =
-                new ObjectMapper(jsonFactory)
-                        .disable(SerializationFeature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS)
-                        .registerModule(new JavaTimeModule());
-        SimpleModule module = new SimpleModule();
-        module.addSerializer(ObjectId.class, new ObjectIdSerializer());
-        mapper.registerModule(module);
-        return mapper;
-    }
-
-    @Bean
-    public JsonFactory jsonFactory() {
-        return new JsonFactory();
+    public Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilderCustomizer objectMapperBuilderCustomizer() {
+        return (Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilder builder) -> {
+            builder.featuresToDisable(SerializationFeature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS);
+            builder.modulesToInstall(new JavaTimeModule());
+            SimpleModule module = new SimpleModule();
+            module.addSerializer(ObjectId.class, new ObjectIdSerializer());
+            builder.modulesToInstall(module);
+        };
     }
 
     @Bean
diff --git a/mflix/server/java-spring/src/main/resources/application.properties b/mflix/server/java-spring/src/main/resources/application.properties
index 1e89e1b..d91141e 100644
--- a/mflix/server/java-spring/src/main/resources/application.properties
+++ b/mflix/server/java-spring/src/main/resources/application.properties
@@ -36,6 +36,9 @@ logging.logback.rollingpolicy.max-file-size=5MB
 logging.logback.rollingpolicy.max-history=5
 
 # Jackson Configuration (JSON serialization)
+# This app uses Jackson 2 (custom ObjectId serializer, spring.jackson2.* config below);
+# Spring Boot 4.1 defaults HTTP message conversion to Jackson 3 unless pinned here.
+spring.http.converters.preferred-json-mapper=jackson2
 spring.jackson2.default-property-inclusion=non_null
 
 # API Documentation (Swagger/OpenAPI)