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

You can remove "JavaAppletPlugin.plugin" found in Spotlight or Finder, then re-install downloaded Java 8.

This will simply solve your problem.

Answer 2

This is how I did it. You don't need to delete Java 9 or newer version.

Step 1: Install Java 8

You can download Java 8 from here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html

Step 2: After installation of Java 8. Confirm installation of all versions.Type the following command in your terminal.

/usr/libexec/java_home -V

Step 3: Edit .bash_profile

sudo nano ~/.bash_profile

Step 4: Add 1.8 as default. (Add below line to bash_profile file).

export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8)

Now Press CTRL+X to exit the bash. Press 'Y' to save changes.

Step 5: Reload bash_profile

source ~/.bash_profile

Step 6: Confirm current version of Java

java -version

Answer 3

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)

Answer 4

Old question but just had that problem /dumb jira having problems with java 10/ and didn't find a simple answer here so just gonna leave it:

$ /usr/libexec/java_home -V shows the versions installed and their locations so you can simply remove /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/<the_version_you_want_to_remove>. Voila

Answer 5

You don't need to down grade. You can run more than one version of Java on MacOS. You can set the version of your terminal with this command in MacOS.

# List Java versions installed
/usr/libexec/java_home -V

# Java 11
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 11)

# Java 1.8
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8)

# Java 1.7
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7)

# Java 1.6
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6)

You can set the default value in the .bashrc, .profile, or .zprofile

Answer 6

As it allows to install more than one version of java, I had install many 3 versions unknowingly but it was point to latest version "11.0.2"

I could able to solve this issue with below steps to move to "1.8"

$java -version

openjdk version "11.0.2" 2019-01-15 OpenJDK Runtime Environment 18.9 (build 11.0.2+9) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 18.9 (build 11.0.2+9, mixed mode)

cd /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines
ls

jdk1.8.0_201.jdk jdk1.8.0_202.jdk openjdk-11.0.2.jdk

sudo rm -rf openjdk-11.0.2.jdk
sudo rm -rf jdk1.8.0_201.jdk
ls

jdk1.8.0_202.jdk

java -version

java version "1.8.0_202-ea" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_202-ea-b03) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.202-b03, mixed mode)