IntelliJ target bytecode reverting

Question

For a project that I'm currently working on, IntelliJ gave me the compile error Error:java: javacTask: source release 8 requires target release 1.8. I went into Settings>Build, Execution, Deployment>Compiler>Java and saw that the target bytecode version for one of my modules was set to 1.5, so I changed it to 1.8, compiled, and it worked. But then the next day, I got the same error. I went into settings and the target bytecode for that one module was back at 1.5. I changed it to 1.8 and it compiled/ran just fine. This has now happened multiple times and I am frustrated by the number of times I have to go into settings to manually change the target bytecode version.

Why does the target bytecode version keep reverting? I don't have 1.5 specified in the pom or anywhere else, so I am baffled as to why the bytecode version keeps getting set to 1.5.

'baffled' is exactly how I felt. – Perry Tew May 27 '16 at 20:48 — Perry Tew, May 27 '16 at 20:48

isapir · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-10T03:25:10.897

13

You need to specify the source and target versions in your pom.xml file, but since the maven-compiler-plugin is added by default, an easier way to do that would be to set the following properties:

<properties>
    <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
</properties>

edited Apr 10 '18 at 03:25

answered Sep 11 '16 at 18:46

isapir

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score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 08 '15 at 20:27

You need to dd this to your POM:

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>3.3</version>
            <configuration>
                <source>1.8</source>
                <target>1.8</target>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 15 '20 at 02:12

FYI.

I still had this problem despite setting the pom.xml with both the settings above from the answers as mentioned by @isapir and @carlos-a-ibarra respectively.

I discovered this was due to an Intellij setting:

This config can be found in Build,Execution,Deployment > Build Tools > Maven > Importing

By default, it is set to the 'Internal JRE' setting, which in the latest version of Idea is 11. I had to select it to use the 1.8 JDK the project was configured to use.

This is annoying, because if you have a mix of 11 and 8 projects, you'll have to manually toggle this setting back and forth.

It caused the module output to always fall back to 11 every time the pom.xml was reimported.

It's a really annoying bug in IntelliJ.

This was the real issue and relevant fix for me. – coretechie Feb 28 '20 at 12:05 — coretechie, Feb 28 '20 at 12:05

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 13 '21 at 05:33

0

Please try below option, it worked for me.

step 01: Change the version under Module and project. step 02: build the module.

Hope it should resolve the issue.

answered Oct 13 '21 at 05:33

Vasanthakumar Jagannathan

373
2
13

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 07 '22 at 06:59

I have the same issue with "IntelliJ IDEA 2022.2.3 (Community Edition)".

This is my "pom.xml"

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>org.example</groupId>
    <artifactId>java-test-17</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <properties>
        <maven.compiler.release>17</maven.compiler.release>
    </properties>

</project>

I can manually change the "Target bytecode version" to 17. (Preference => Build, Execution, Deployment) => Compiler => Java Compiler).

However, if I reload maven project (Right click "pom.xml" => Maven => Reload project), the "Target bytecode version" will be changed back to 1.5.

To prevent that, I added "maven-compiler-plugin" to pom.xml. Then I reload maven project (Right click "pom.xml" => Maven => Reload project). Now, the "Target bytecode version" is 17.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>org.example</groupId>
    <artifactId>java-test-17</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <properties>
        <maven.compiler.release>17</maven.compiler.release>
    </properties>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.10.1</version>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 30 '23 at 17:38

0

Try under "Preference => Build, Execution, Deployment => Compiler => Java Compiler" add all missing modules with + button in "Per-module bytecode version". For some unknown reason I was missing two.

answered Jul 30 '23 at 17:38

lojza

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IntelliJ target bytecode reverting

6 Answers6

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