(Mac OS) JAVA version does not change

Question

I have 2 JAVA version on my Macbook. I want to change version from 14 to 11. I found 2 solutions on the internet but both are not working.

My java -version result is

openjdk version "14.0.1" 2020-04-14
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 14.0.1+14)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 14.0.1+14, mixed mode, sharing)

1st Solution (How to set or change the default Java (JDK) version on OS X?), I run /usr/libexec/java_home -V then I got a result below,

Matching Java Virtual Machines (2):
14.0.1, x86_64: "OpenJDK 14.0.1"    /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk.jdk/Contents/Home
11.0.8, x86_64: "Java SE 11.0.8"    /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-11.0.8.jdk/Contents/Home

Then I did

export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 11.0.8`

After checking from java -version, The result is still 14.0.1

2nd solution (How to set JAVA_HOME in Mac permanently?), I edit ~/.bash_profile file as below,

export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 11.0.8`

And I run command

source ~/.bash_profile
echo $JAVA_HOME

It shows the result,

/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-11.0.8.jdk/Contents/Home

But when I check the result with java -version, It's still 14.0.1 as well

Answer 1

Install sdkman which takes care of the rather tedious command line voodoo you have to employ to try to make this happen. The problem is, JAVA_HOME is just an environment variable, it changes nothing - only tools that explicitly look for it (generally, maven and ant for example) will be affected by messing with it. When you type java on a mac, it runs /usr/bin/java, which is not a file you can change even as root. This java will then invoke the real java, and does not look at JAVA_HOME to get the job done: It is a softlink to /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands/java, and because it is in /System you can't change that either, not even as root.

That's why this is so hard, and why you want a nice tool (sdkman) to do it for you.

Answer 2

Try export JAVA_HOME='/usr/libexec/java_home -v 11' (without the minor version), it outputs the right java -version for me on Mac.

Answer 3

I also faced the same problem in my apple macbook pro with m1 arm chip. The solution is simple.

1: First You have to check that what are the installed JDK in your computer .For That you have to use the following command.

/usr/libexec/java_home -V

Above will give yout the versions like 20.0.1 (arm64) "Oracle Corporation" - "OpenJDK 20.0.1" /Users/buddhasattaduttaroy/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk-20.0.1/Contents/Home 16.0.1 (x86_64) "AdoptOpenJDK" - "AdoptOpenJDK 16" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-16.jdk/Contents/Home 11.0.20 (arm64) "Oracle Corporation" - "Java SE 11.0.20" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-11.jdk/Contents/Home 11.0.19 (arm64) "Amazon.com Inc." - "Amazon Corretto 11" /Users/buddhasattaduttaroy/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/corretto-11.0.19/Contents/Home

You have to select the version from here and then apply like this

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8 ** mind it you dont have to specify the complete version of the java but the normal one (means not 11.0.6. but 11.o or 1.8 as per ur requirement)**

2:You have to put these command in the .bashrc and .zshrc and do source over them.

I think this will solve your problem

Answer 4

The removal of quotes around the JAVA_HOME and then setting the path variable variable worked for me (Mac OS Catalina):

export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk.jdk/Contents/Home
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH

Answer 5

If you need to switch between versions and already have the JDKs installed, you can adjust your bash profile with aliases that reset JAVA_HOME and reinitialize your PATH each time:

export JAVA_11_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v11)
export JAVA_14_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v14)

alias java11='export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_11_HOME; export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH'
alias java14='export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_14_HOME; export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH'

Then, after restarting your terminal session, you can switch back and forth:

$ java11
$ java -version

and

$ java14
$ java -version