Android Studio Error "Android Gradle plugin requires Java 11 to run. You are currently using Java 1.8"

Make sure that your Gradle is using the proper JDK. Try running ./gradlew --version in your project's directory. The output should be something like this:

Gradle 7.0-rc-2
------------------------------------------------------------

Build time:   2021-04-01 21:26:39 UTC
Revision:     912a3368b654b71250dfc925a20d620393

Kotlin:       1.4.31
Groovy:       3.0.7
Ant:          Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.9 compiled on September 27 2020
JVM:          11.0.10 (Ubuntu 11.0.10+9-Ubuntu-0ubuntu1.20.10)
OS:           Linux 5.11.4-051104-generic amd64

If the JVM points to version 1.8 then you should change it in settings. You can find it in Preferences → Build, Execution, Deployment → Build Tools → Gradle → *Gradle JDK.

For Android Studio Arctic Fox (4.2), with 2020.3.1 Patch 2 on Windows 10 Pro PC:

Step 1

Step 2

If you are using Android Studio (Arctic Fox 2020.3.1) on Windows 10.

This is how you fix the Build failed error:

Android Gradle plugin requires Java 11 to run. You are currently using Java 1.8

1. Open the Project Structure...

   (from the Toolbar)
   

   (or from the File Menu)
   

2. Click on the Gradle Settings link

   

3. Select the correct Java JDK from the Gradle JDK drop-down list

   

NOTE: If you cannot find the correct Java JDK, then you'll first need to download and install it...

Android Studio Arctic Fox (4.2) with 2020.3.1 Patch 3 - Mac

You just need to choose the embedded JDK version 11.0.10 from the Gradle settings of preferences.

This is how I fixed it on macOS.

./gradlew --version

Go to Preference → Build, Execution, Deployment → Gradle

Change the Gradle JDK to your latest version.

I have only one JDK (Microsoft build OpenJDK 17) installed before installing Android Studio. For unknown reasons, a JDK 1.8 has been installed along Android Studio and set as the Gradle default at /Users/<username>/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/corretto-1.8.0_322

You can solve it in this simple way.

1. Go to https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase-jdk16-downloads.html

2. Download the JDK ZIP file of your system. (Let’s say Windows)

3. Extract it in any folder with high permissions under your PC main directory

4. Now open and Go to your Android studio project structure located at men File* → Project structure.

5. And paste the directory where you unzipped the JDK version here. As you see, mine is JDK 16 as at now and installed in that directory as seen in the picture:

   

I got this error when I started gradlew ktlintFormat in the Terminal of Arctic Fox build.

1. I opened Project Structure (menu File → Project Structure) and selected Java 11, but it didn't help even after a restart of Android Studio.

   

2. Then I changed the Java path in Settings (see the accepted answer), but it didn't help. You should set it.

3. I tried to change Windows system variables and changed JAVA_HOME.

   (A short way: run cmd with administrative rights and write: setx /M JAVA_HOME "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-11.0.11", and then restart Android Studio)

   Press Win+X, press "System", and enter "va".

   

   

   I pressed Edit button and "Browse Directory...", and then selected JRE (or JDK) folder (without bin) of Java 11. Then OK, and OK (as always).

   

4. I opened cmd (command line in Windows) and typed: %JAVA_HOME%. It wrote me this error:

   'C:\Program' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

   Looking at Setting the JAVA_HOME Variable in Windows, I found that we should replace Program Files with Progra~1 (yes, this DOS trick still works). So, replace JAVA_HOME again like in the picture below.

   

5. Restart Android Studio or reset the computer.

I got this error when I updated one of the dependencies in Android Studio that requires Java 11. You just need to follow these steps.

1. Download the Java 11. For Mac, download a .dmg file and for Windows a ZIP file. Link: Download Java 11

2. Select options at Android studio

   

   Follow the steps and choose your newly saved Java SDK

   

   Follow the steps and choose your newly saved Java SDK.

   

   (Follow the steps and choose your newly saved Java SDK.)

You can do it this way (menu File → Build option):

On macOS M1 I solved it by the following steps.

1. Opened file ~/.zshrc in Visual Studio Code

2. Added this line:

   export JAVA_HOME="/Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents/jre/Contents/Home"
   

3. Saved the file

4. Reloaded the terminal with modified file by running

   source ~/.zshrc
   

5. testing if the changes have been loaded by running

   echo $JAVA_HOME
   

6. Verified that the correct location is displaying.

7. Verified that the Gradle is displaying correct Java 11 version by running

   cd android
   ./gradlew --version
   

And here is the result:

------------------------------------------------------------
Gradle 7.3.3
------------------------------------------------------------

Build time:   2021-12-22 12:37:54 UTC
Revision:     6f556c80f945dc54b50e0be633da6c62dbe8dc71

Kotlin:       1.5.31
Groovy:       3.0.9
Ant:          Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.11 compiled on July 10 2021
JVM:          11.0.12 (JetBrains s.r.o. 11.0.12+0-b1504.28-7817840)
OS:           Mac OS X 12.2.1 aarch64

Tried to build it again by running:

yarn android

And it's succeeded.

I downloaded the 11 JDK again and it works. This saves you time as you don’t have to clear the cache, build, and rebuild your project.

If you are currently using Android Studio Arctic Fox (4.2):

• You can set manually the Gradle JDK (menu Preferences → Build Tools → Gradle → Gradle JDK (use or download JDK 11))
• Restore the default setting and don't do the previous tip in all projects (menu File → Manage IDE settings → Restore Default Settings)

I was just having the same problem -

Android Gradle plugin requires Java 11 to run

Resolve it by replacing the value of Gradle JDK, "JDK 1.9" by "Android Studio SDk default JD 11.0.11" in menu Settings → Build, Execution, Deployment → Build Tools → Gradle.

On Mac, only setting JAVA_HOME to JDK 11 embedded to Android Studio helped.

I did it with this command in the command line:

export JAVA_HOME=ENTER_PATH_TO_JDK_HERE

PATH_TO_JDK could be something like /Users/userName/Library/Application\ Support/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/AndroidStudio/ch-0/203.7583922/Android\ Studio.app/Contents/jre/Contents/Home

I have concluded that Gradle calls the version of Java installed on the system, regardless of Android Studio settings.

On macOS, check the list of installed Java versions in the system with the command:

/usr/libexec/java_home -V

If there is no Java 11 or higher among them, you will get an error like the author of the question.

The solution is to install the Java 11 or higher.

The second solution is to make a symlink in the folder ~/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/ to the JRE embedded in Android Studio with the command:

ln -s "/Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents/jre" "~/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/Android Studio Default JRE"

Additionally you can add this line to ~/.zshenv:

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/libexec/java_home

You can get installation paths for different Java versions if needed:

/usr/libexec/java_home -v 11

or

/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8

All the solutions here are helpful for Java 11. But if you don't want to upgrade to Java 11 then you should just downgrade Android Gradle plugin (ADP) to 4.X as shown below:

• For the latest version, this works for my Windows machine

• Menu File → Project Structure

  

• Choose the JDK 11 from you machine that you installed

• Click Apply and OK.

• Restart your Android Studio after these changes

• Now, you're good to go

The new Gradle version needs Java 11. You need to download Java 11 and update in to Gradle.

Firstly you need to check your current JDK version. './gradlew --version'. Use this comment in your project terminal to know current using JDK version. You will get the below image:

If JVM points to version 1.8 then you should change it in settings.

For Ubuntu and Windows: Menu File → Settings → Build,Execution,Deployment → Build Tools → Gradle → Gradle JDK. Please check the below image:

For Mac: Preferences → Build → Execution, Deployment → Build Tools → Gradle → Gradle JDK.

It’s working perfectly for me.

For macOS users

The bundled JDK into macOS is 1.8, but now we need 11. Make Gradle use AndroidStudio's JDK for building the project:

Into file <PROJECT_ROOT>/gradle.properties, add line:

org.gradle.java.home=/Users/.../Library/Application Support/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/AndroidStudio/ch-0/.../Android Studio.app/Contents/jre/Contents/Home

If you are using MS App Center, you may face the same kind of issue when you use Java 11 in your Android project. If you are looking a solution for MS App Center issue. This may help you!

• Go to https://appcenter.ms/users/user1/apps/yourapp/build/branches
• Click settings icon to go to Build configuration
• Scroll down to Environment and turn on.
• Set JAVA_HOME to $(JAVA_HOME_11_X64)

⚠️ Note: this is a solution if you are getting this error on the GitHub Actions Pipeline

If you are using Java 11 in your project, but the GitHub Action Pipeline that builds the application is set to use Java 1.8, you will get this error.

To fix it, replace the following:

      - name: set up JDK 1.8
        uses: actions/setup-java@v1
        with:
          java-version: 1.8

with:

      - name: set up JDK 11
        uses: actions/setup-java@v1
        with:
          java-version: 11

I ran into a similar problem when trying to run the benchmarking samples for the first time.

The instructions to run the sample were to execute

./gradlew macrobenchmark:cC

in the IDE terminal, but in my case this resulted with the same error.

I had tried the accepted answer above from M Tomczyński above, but that didn't work for me. I believe this was as a result of my existing config for JAVA_HOME (which can be found here).

This also meant that option 2, changing my JAVA_HOME config, wasn't an option.

The change which did work for me though was option 3 in the suggestions above. I checked the path for Java 11 from the answer above and added that into gradle.properties, and then sync'd gradle as per the IDE prompt, and re-ran the macrobenchamark gradle command successfully.

org.gradle.java.home=/Applications/Android Studio Preview.app/Contents/jre/Contents/Home

Changing the Gradle JDK to 11 worked for me in Android Studio Arctic Fox (4.2):

Step 1:

Navigate to: menu File → Setting → Build, Execution, Deployment → Build Tools → Gradle

Step 2:

Change Gradle JDK to 11, below the Gradle Projects.

Step 3:

Apply, and Rebuild Project!

My problem was that I was using Android Studio version before Arctic Fox (4.2). And it seems that only Arctic Fox supports JDK 11.

None of the previous answers worked for me in Android Studio 4.2 (Arctic Fox), 2020.3.1 Patch 3.

Only adding org.gradle.java.home=<Path-to-JDK-v11> to gradle.properties worked in my case.

If you are using Linux, just add org.gradle.java.home=/opt/android-studio/jre.

If you don't want to use JDK 11 and still want to use JDK 1.8, you can revert back the Android plugins as below.

plugins {
    id 'com.android.application' version '4.2.0' apply false
    id 'com.android.library' version '4.2.0' apply false
}

If you run into this problem from the terminal in Android Studio, you should configure JAVA_HOME in your environment into Java 11, set the Gradle JDK in Preferences can't solve. I guess that running Gradle from the terminal and running Gradle from the IDE are not the same process and they use different JDK location.

I solved it by adding this to the gradle.properties file:

org.gradle.java.home=/usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64

But your Java 11 may be located in a different directory.

Example path for Windows:

org.gradle.java.home=C\:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk-13.0.2

For a Flutter project with VS Code

Add this to file gradle.properties:

org.gradle.java.home=<path to JDK 11>

Example:

C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk-11.0.15

In Windows I got this error when upgrading React Native v0.67 to 0.68 from CMD of the directory without installing update OpenJDK 11.

First I install:

choco source add -n chocolatey -s 'https://chocolatey.org/api/v2/'

Then I run this:

choco install -y nodejs-lts openjdk11 // Without nodejs-lts I have already installed Node.js

For me it’s as simple as making sure I'm using the Gradle JDK located in [Android Studio installation path]/jre.

Try it. It might also work for you.

What worked for me:

1. Deleting the folder for JDK 1.8 in my user folder.
2. Restarted Android Studio.
3. Android Studio dropped down a bar at the top of the screen asking if I wanted to change which JDK to use or redownload 1.8.
4. I selected JDK 16 and all worked!

I saw this because on my Bitbucket server with pipeline set up, I needed to build from the docker-android-sdk/android-28 image which is packaged with openjdk-8.

I added the following line to my bitbucket-pipelines.yml file to install openjdk-11 before running the Gradle build:

- apt-get install -y openjdk-11-jdk

For anyone who doesn't know how to change the JDK version, if you are on Mac, use this command in terminal:

sudo rm -rf /Library/Java/*

This will remove all JDKs from the system. Then, just download the required JDK version and you are all up!

I was working on a Flutter application and it was not running on my phone stating that Android Gradle plugin requires Java 11.

My Android Studio version was very old. I was not seeing any of the options shown in the screenshots. I updated Android Studio after setting the JAVA_HOME in system environment variables. And it automatically picked Java 11.

If you just modify the JDK version from 1.8 to 11 in Preferences → Build, Execution, Deployment → Build Tools → Gradle, you may still get that error.

By running the command ./gradlew --version, you can see the JDK version is still 1.8. So, we need to change the JAVA_HOME value in ~/.bash_profile to your real JDK-11 location. Here is the diff after modifying:

- export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_251.jdk/Contents/Home
+ export JAVA_HOME=/Users/xx/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/corretto-11.0.14.1/Contents/Home

Then, reopen your Android Studio, and everything will work well.

Note: this is a solution if you are getting this error on the Azure DevOps Pipeline

If you are using Java 11 in your project, but the Azure DevOps Pipeline that builds the application is set to use Java 1.8, you will get this error.

To fix it, add following (for Window pool):

    - task: JavaToolInstaller@0
      inputs:
        versionSpec: '11'
        jdkArchitectureOption: 'x64'
        jdkSourceOption: 'PreInstalled'

Just add below property in gradle.properties

org.gradle.java.home=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-16.jdk/Contents/Home

(This is for MacOS. Give the path as per OS). This fix will work for any Android Studio version