java: cannot access org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication bad class file

Question

java: cannot access org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication
  bad class file: /C:/Users/xyz/.m2/repository/org/springframework/boot/spring-boot/3.0.0-SNAPSHOT/spring-boot-3.0.0-20220910.145857-773.jar!/org/springframework/boot/SpringApplication.class
    class file has wrong version 61.0, should be 52.0
    Please remove or make sure it appears in the correct subdirectory of the classpath.

Answer 1

The reason is Spring Boot 3 requires java 17, as stated in Preparing for Spring Boot 3.0.

class file has wrong version 61.0, should be 52.0

Referring to List of Java class file format major version numbers?. and similar question Class file has wrong version 52.0, should be 50.0 It indicates that you are using java 8 but the class file is compiled for java 17.

Answer 2

Change your springboot version to the previous stable version.

Before :

<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>3.0.0</version>
    <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->

After:

 <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>2.6.4</version>
    <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->