404 not working when homepage is VirtueMart Category Layout

[sandomatyas]

Hello,

I have a Joomla 5.3.2 website running VirtueMart 4.4.8.
The homepage of the site is set to a VirtueMart Category Layout, where the selected category is the Top Level Category.

In general, it works fine, but I noticed that there is no 404 page.
If I type any random path after the domain (e.g. mydomain.com/adfjkhakljgljakh2424234), I always get the homepage content, regardless of the setting of "Enable VirtueMart 404 error handling".

If I change the homepage to any non-VirtueMart menu item (e.g. a Joomla article), 404 pages work correctly, even when VM productdetails is the homepage.
This issue only occurs when the homepage is a VirtueMart Category Layout, regardless of whether it is the Top Level Category or a specific category.

Is this a routing issue in VirtueMart?
Is there a known workaround to make 404 pages work with VM Category Layout as the homepage?

Thank you!

[PRO]

what does the page return? a 404? does it show in the message box?

check what the page returns