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I currently deleted Apple Legacy Java SE6 on my macbook because I've already downloaded JRE8 on my machine and I think I no longer need the older version. After I deleted it, every time I opened Intellij it popped up a window and asked me to get Legacy Java runtime 6. In the meantime, Android Studio and Eclipse worked perfectly fine without popping up any window notifying me about the installing. So my questions are:

  • Is there any way I could use jre8 instead of jre6 to run Intellij?
  • Why does Intellij require me to install jre6 while Android Studio doesn't?
  • What is the benefit to install Legacy Java runtime 6?
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Q1. No. Intellij deliberately requires jre6 because of bugs in Java 8 as described at :Why is Java SE 6 Legacy required to open Intellij?.

Q2. I assume that the Android Studio app has its own embedded Java and so does not depend on or use the version you have on your Mac. (This is the way people producing Java apps are going now, and I think it is the only way if you want to sell them on the Mac App store.)

Q3. The benefit of installing java 6 is the obvious one that you can run older java apps that either require it or were built using Apple's jar bundler which doesn't talk to Oracle's Java 8.

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  • Find answer here: intellij-support.jetbrains.com/entries/…
    – edhu
    Apr 20, 2015 at 0:08
  • Thanks Edyyy. Modified my answer to include summary of content of link in line with AskDifferent policy. As that link warns against changing Java version on info.plist file, the ticked answer would seem to be wrong.
    – David
    Apr 20, 2015 at 8:11
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Edit /Applications/<Product>.app/Contents/Info.plist file, change JVMVersion from 1.6* to 1.8*

<key>JVMVersion</key>
<string>1.8*</string>
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  • So I'm curious why does Intellij require jre6 even it was not supported by Apple anymore?
    – edhu
    Mar 13, 2015 at 12:40
  • "Modifying Info.plist will break the application digital signature and prevent the patch updates. We do not recommend modifying Info.plist file to run under JDK 1.7 or 1.8. The recommended way of overriding JDK version via idea.properties file can be found here: youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-126847 "
    – malix
    Oct 6, 2015 at 14:18
  • editing idea.properties might be cleaner but it didn't help for my desperate colleague
    – Matthias M
    Aug 18, 2016 at 13:28

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