Nativescript Android build fails suddenly (NS6)

Question

My Nativescript 6 Android build suddenly is failing - I didn't update any modules except for the NS CLI 8.2.3 - but the tns-android is 6.5.x

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* Where:
Build file '/Users/mini/Projects/app-mobile/platforms/tempPlugin/nativescript_webview_ext/build.gradle' line: 6

* What went wrong:
A problem occurred evaluating root project 'nativescript_webview_ext'.
> Failed to apply plugin 'com.android.internal.library'.
   > Android Gradle plugin requires Java 11 to run. You are currently using Java 1.8.
     You can try some of the following options:
       - changing the IDE settings.
       - changing the JAVA_HOME environment variable.
       - changing `org.gradle.java.home` in `gradle.properties`.

* Try:
> Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace.
> Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.
> Run with --scan to get full insights.

* Get more help at https://help.gradle.org

BUILD FAILED in 684ms
Failed to build plugin @nota/nativescript-webview-ext : 
Error: Command ./gradlew failed with exit code 1

Again this was working before the CLI update.

I'm using Java 1.8 - seems to be a big jump to Java 11.

Answer 1

Failed to apply plugin 'com.android.internal.library'.

Android Gradle plugin requires Java 11 to run. You are currently using Java 1.8.

 You can try some of the following options:
   - changing the IDE settings.
   - changing the JAVA_HOME environment variable.
   - changing `org.gradle.java.home` in `gradle.properties`.

As it can be read from the error message, gradle is expecting jdk 11 and you have jdk 8 configured. Install jdk 11 on the system and set JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to it.

This is probably happening because nativescript 8.2.3 seems to be using gradle 7 and it expects jdk 11. You can specify gradle version in a somewhat hacky way likewise: How can I downgrade the Gradle in NativeScript?