How to downgrade Java from 9 to 8 on a MACOS. Eclipse is not running with Java 9

Question

How to downgrade Java from 9 to 8 on a macOS Sierra 10.12.6(16G29) . I tried removing the Java plugin and installed Java 8, however the Java and javac version shows 9 in ter

Answer 1

If you have multiple Java versions installed on your Mac, here's a quick way to switch the default version using Terminal. In this example, I am going to switch Java 10 to Java 8.

$ java -version
java version "10.0.1" 2018-04-17
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment 18.3 (build 10.0.1+10)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 18.3 (build 10.0.1+10, mixed mode)

$ /usr/libexec/java_home -V
Matching Java Virtual Machines (2):
    10.0.1, x86_64: "Java SE 10.0.1"    /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-10.0.1.jdk/Contents/Home
    1.8.0_171, x86_64:  "Java SE 8" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_171.jdk/Contents/Home

/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-10.0.1.jdk/Contents/Home

Then, in your .bash_profile add the following.

# Java 8
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_171.jdk/Contents/Home

Now if you try java -version again, you should see the version you want.

$ java -version
java version "1.8.0_171"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_171-b11)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.171-b11, mixed mode)