Using Android Studio with Java 1.7

Question

I was trying to get Android Studio to use Java 1.7 on Mac OS X (Mountain Lion)

I went to File > Project Structure... and then tried to add a JDK with

Answer 1

On a mac, check your java version by running this command:

java -version

And you should see a version higher than 1.7. If not, then just run your system updates to get the latest version of java. (Click the "Apple" logo in the upper left and choose About this Mac then click the Software Update... button and install the latest java from there.) In other words, get your latest java from Apple's Updates, if you can–it's easier that way.

Once you have the latest version, then simply run the following command:

/usr/libexec/java_home

This will tell you your Java Home location, which is what Android Studio wants. For me, this value was

/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_65.jdk/Contents/Home

If you'd like to set this as a default for all projects, follow the instructions in this related answer (which deals with how to set your Android SDK but the Java SDK is set in the same screen). In a nutshell, close all projects to get to the Welcome to Android Studio screen then select > Configure > Project Defaults > Project Structure > Android SDK and then input your JDK location, given by the java_home utility.

I just took these steps while creating a project targeting "Lollipop" and it worked like a charm.