Ionic + Cordova Android build error - could not find tools.jar

Question

today I've upgrade my MacBook to macOS Big Sur version 11.0.1. Now there is a problem coming out when I tried to build the project for Android.

Execution failed for task ':CordovaLib:compileDebugJavaWithJavac'.
> Could not find tools.jar. Please check that /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home contains a valid JDK installation.

check your JDK and path. I recommend you to reinstall Java JDK. — Najam Us Saqib, Nov 16 '20 at 10:47
I run in terminal `/usr/libexec/java_home` and result is `/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home` . I assumed java path and JDK is working fine. — Siti Aishah Ismail, Nov 16 '20 at 10:50

score 50 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 09 '20 at 19:26

50

Try running

/usr/libexec/java_home -V

And see if this shows in the list

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home

This was the case for me and I had to remove the entries to the Internet Plug-Ins folder. Check here for more details that helped me.

answered Dec 09 '20 at 19:26

user3572565

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Error occoured after Big Sur update, tried out all the other solution, only this one solved it. Thanks! – Véger Lóránd Dec 21 '20 at 12:33
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This fixed my issue. Thanks! – Cameron Cobb Jan 05 '21 at 19:14
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This fixed it for me as well. – srkleiman Feb 15 '21 at 23:08
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Thanks, you saved me big time! – stbamb Feb 19 '21 at 19:24
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Worked for me too, IONIC stack – RohitAneja May 10 '21 at 10:22
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In case anyone is hesistant to completely delete the folder, simply renaming it solved the issue for me as well – Bart S Aug 16 '21 at 09:42
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Fixed, Thanks a lot – Ankit Maheshwari Dec 21 '21 at 06:59
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Great fix. Thanks man. Saved lots of time – Shalin Nipuna Feb 04 '22 at 12:01
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I have been stuck on this for 2 days thanks man!! cheers! – M Farahat Feb 18 '22 at 15:59

Shashank Agrawal · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-19T16:04:16.407

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I also faced the same issue today while the same setup (building the Android app) was working for me before upgrading to Big Sur.

I saw various solutions like-

But I was not sure if those were recommended solution. I tried for few hours and finally got it working with the correct fix (looks to me).

Basically, for me, the JAVA_HOME variable was not set (or Big Sur removed it somehow).

So I simply added it in my ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc)-

export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_91.jdk/Contents/Home

You can simply check and replace the version number in the above line.

edited Nov 19 '20 at 16:04

answered Nov 16 '20 at 19:20

Shashank Agrawal

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After the Big Sur update, the JAVA_HOME variable was removed from my ```~ /.bashrc ``` thanks – Vagner Sabadi Nov 18 '20 at 22:32
How to open .bashrc or .zshrc file ? – zulkarnain shah Dec 22 '20 at 16:29
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for a long time, finally found it too. thanks guys this works perfectly in big sur – Alauddin Afif Cassandra Jan 12 '21 at 16:19
@zulkarnainshah go to your root directory & press `cmd + shirt + . (dot)` you can see .bashrc & .zshrc files – Aditya Birangal Jun 25 '21 at 18:45

score 25 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 25 '20 at 12:39

If this is not still resolved for the Cordova android build -- just do it manually. My case: java_home is set properly and also reloaded ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc) files. And I am getting JAVA_HOME value by echoing on terminal.

So I manually copied file tool.jar from /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_211.jdk/Contents/Home/lib to /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home/lib And It worked.

For ease use this cmd

sudo cp /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_211.jdk/Contents/Home/lib/tools.jar /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home/lib

Just check your JAVA JDK version.

Typo or not? I had 1.8.0.121.jdk NOT _211. In addition I also followed this: https://explainjava.com/set-java-home-mac-os/ — Dave, Nov 28 '20 at 21:01

score 15 · Answer 4 · answered May 20 '21 at 10:40

The issue happens because of the environment variable JAVA_HOME is not correctly set.

Step 1 - Confirm that you have issue with JAVA_HOME by printing its value in the terminal. You will most likely get an empty string.

echo $JAVA_HOME

Step 2 - Find the correct path on your machine

/usr/libexec/java_home -V

Copy that path associated with "Java SE 8" which usually looks like /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_202.jdk/Contents/Home

Step 3 - Edit .zshenv using nano

nano ~/.zshenv

Step 4 - Add the path from step 2 to the file as follows

export JAVA_HOME=YOUR_JAVA_PATH

example:

export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_202.jdk/Contents/Home

Step 5 - Source the updated .zshenv file to activate the environment variable

source ~/.zshenv

Step 6 - Print to confirm the path

echo $JAVA_HOME

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 19 '20 at 16:12

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After updating Mac Os to Big Sur I faced the same problem, Solution :

Download the latest JDK 8 from : https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/javase-jdk8-downloads.html
and Installed it

answered Nov 19 '20 at 16:12

Reda EL FILLALI

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me 2. i have downloaded the latest version. for example jdk-8u291. then i ran this cmd and problem fixed. sudo cp /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_291.jdk/Contents/Home/lib/tools.jar /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home/lib – Ali Abdulaal Jun 20 '21 at 14:52
That really worked for me cool... thanks – Sathish Sundar Sep 22 '21 at 10:15

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 02 '21 at 07:56

In my case the issue occurs because JAVA_HOME path updated with /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home which have many issues

While runing /usr/libexec/java_home -V on terminal found:

1.8.151.12 (x86_64) "Oracle Corporation" - "Java" /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home
1.8.0_151 (x86_64) "Oracle Corporation" - "Java SE 8" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_151.jdk/Contents/Home

so I changed it to use old working one

This can help to set or change the default Java (JDK)

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 23 '21 at 05:05

I also solved the same problem by downloading the latest version of jdk 8 and installing it. I also set my .bash_profile (it can be the one of your preference), adding the JAVA path as follows:

export JAVA_HOME="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-latest-version/Contents/Home"

Ionic + Cordova Android build error - could not find tools.jar

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