Fixing Unsupported major.minor version 52.0 Error in Java

Fixing Unsupported major.minor version 52.0 Error in Java

Unsupported major.minor version 52.0 comes when you are trying to run a class compiled using Java 1.8 compiler into a lower JRE version e.g. JRE 1.7 or JRE 1.6. Simplest way to fix this error is install the latest Java release i.e. Java 8 and run your program. If upgrading to Java 8 is not an option then make sure you use Java compiler's cross compilation feature and compile source code for lower Java version by using -target option of javac command. If you have multiple JRE installed make sure that the latest one comes first in PATH environment variable. You can get "java.lang.unsupportedclassversionerror unsupported major.minor version 52.0" while running a Java program explicitly using java command or running a Java Applet in browser or running a Java program from command line but compiled in Eclipse or any other build tool like Maven or ANT. Main reason of this error is that during compilation, you have used a higher version of JDK but during deployment, you have deployed into a lower version of JDK or JRE. Let's understand the cause and solution of Unsupported major.minor version 52.0 Error in little more detail.

TL:DR; upgrade to Java 8 or compile for lower JRE version using java -target 1.6 option.

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