Fixed: Aptana Studio JNI_CreateJavaVM error

java-os-x-yosemiteI’m looking at various Mac options for JavaScript / Node.js IDEs, and decided to try out the Eclipse-based Aptana Studio 3 (now part of Appcelerator). But I ran into a problem when trying to run it—I kept getting an error saying:

The JVM shared library “/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_20.jdk” does not contain the JNI_CreateJavaVM symbol

After much searching and reading of Stack Overflow posts, I decided after reading this, to completely uninstall the jdk and browser plugin from my machine, and start fresh with a clean install of Java for Yosemite.

Now I don’t know if it’s just me, but oddly the page on the Apple Support site that comes back blank. (I’ll assume there’s no conspiracy for the moment, and that this is just a bug.)

So I plugged the URL to the page into Google and loaded up the cached version. There I found the direct download link to the installer here: http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL1572/en_US/JavaForOSX2014-001.dmg

After running that installer, Aptana Studio (and also Eclipse) now launch just fine. Phew.

I’m posting this here to help others who are running into the JNI_CreateJavaVM error, and so I can find it again the next time I need to set up a new machine with Eclipse or Aptana.

ps. See also comment thread on Facebook.

13 Comments

    • Jake Savin said:

      Sure thing. Glad to be helpful! 🙂

      November 15, 2014
  1. Jordan said:

    Thanks for this, I put of the yosemite upgrade until I finished a major project, thankfully I did as aptana stopped working promptly!!

    J

    January 7, 2015
    Reply
    • Jake Savin said:

      Sure thing. Glad it helped you.

      January 7, 2015
  2. Kim Schnarre said:

    You saved the day.. literally! Thank you so much for your help.

    February 11, 2015
    Reply
  3. airlay said:

    awesome 🙂

    April 9, 2015
    Reply
  4. darylshy said:

    I know you posted this about 6 months ago, but I just wanted to stop by and tell you your post is still helping people 6 months later. Thanks!

    May 27, 2015
    Reply
    • Jake Savin said:

      You’re welcome—glad to hear it. 🙂

      May 27, 2015
  5. gskluzacek said:

    Jake… good post and I’m glad it helped some people. However, even though Apple still offers the version of Java from their web site at the link you provided above, its Java version 6.x which is rather old. The most recent version is Java 8.x. I don’t know about you, but I’m a little leery about installing really old software, especially Java, even if it does come from Apple. Just some food for thought, you know what I’m sayin’?

    June 30, 2015
    Reply
    • Jake Savin said:

      Will Aptana Studio work with Java 8? (I’m a Java-noob, and I am on the Apple update train, but it Aptana didn’t work “out of the box” for me at the time I wrote this post.)

      July 1, 2015
  6. SIngh said:

    The patch you have mentioned will install jdk 6 on the mac but i didn’t want jdk 6 as i need to work on JDK 8

    July 2, 2015
    Reply
    • Jake Savin said:

      I have no clue what’s needed to get this working with JDK 8. Back in November of 2011, I wanted to use Aptana to do remote JavaScript / Node.js debugging, and since I’m not doing Java development, the version of the JDK wasn’t important to me. If you get it working, someone will no doubt find it useful. Cheers!

      August 31, 2015

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