diff --git a/java/debugger/impl/src/com/intellij/debugger/impl/DebuggerUtilsEx.java b/java/debugger/impl/src/com/intellij/debugger/impl/DebuggerUtilsEx.java
index a2ca725f3b76..89cd2bd89ef5 100644
--- a/java/debugger/impl/src/com/intellij/debugger/impl/DebuggerUtilsEx.java
+++ b/java/debugger/impl/src/com/intellij/debugger/impl/DebuggerUtilsEx.java
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ import com.intellij.ui.classFilter.ClassFilter;
 import com.intellij.util.SmartList;
 import com.intellij.util.containers.ContainerUtil;
 import com.intellij.xdebugger.XSourcePosition;
+import com.intellij.xdebugger.frame.XValueNode;
 import com.intellij.xdebugger.impl.XSourcePositionImpl;
 import com.sun.jdi.*;
 import com.sun.jdi.event.Event;
@@ -66,8 +67,6 @@ import java.util.regex.PatternSyntaxException;
 public abstract class DebuggerUtilsEx extends DebuggerUtils {
   private static final Logger LOG = Logger.getInstance("#com.intellij.debugger.impl.DebuggerUtilsEx");
 
-  private static final int MAX_LABEL_SIZE = 255;
-
   /**
    * @param context
    * @return all CodeFragmentFactoryProviders that provide code fragment factories suitable in the context given
@@ -594,8 +593,9 @@ public abstract class DebuggerUtilsEx extends DebuggerUtils {
   }
 
   public static String truncateString(final String str) {
-    if (str.length() > MAX_LABEL_SIZE) {
-      return str.substring(0, MAX_LABEL_SIZE) + "...";
+    // leave a small gap over XValueNode.MAX_VALUE_LENGTH to detect oversize
+    if (str.length() > XValueNode.MAX_VALUE_LENGTH + 5) {
+      return str.substring(0, XValueNode.MAX_VALUE_LENGTH + 5);
     }
     return str;
   }