Cafebabe bad class or version 0034

Question

After reading other similar questions, I still could not find a solution for this. I get the following stack trace, which complains about a jar containing the library I created, compiled using Java 1.7:

UNEXPECTED TOP-LEVEL EXCEPTION: com.android.dx.cf.iface.ParseException: bad class file magic (cafebabe) or version (0034.0000) at com.android.dx.cf.direct.DirectClassFile.parse0(DirectClassFile.java:472) at com.android.dx.cf.direct.DirectClassFile.parse(DirectClassFile.java:406) at com.android.dx.cf.direct.DirectClassFile.parseToInterfacesIfNecessary(DirectClassFile.java:388) at com.android.dx.cf.direct.DirectClassFile.getMagic(DirectClassFile.java:251) at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.processClass(Main.java:704) at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.processFileBytes(Main.java:673) at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.access$300(Main.java:83) at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main$1.processFileBytes(Main.java:602) at com.android.dx.cf.direct.ClassPathOpener.processArchive(ClassPathOpener.java:284) at com.android.dx.cf.direct.ClassPathOpener.processOne(ClassPathOpener.java:166) at com.android.dx.cf.direct.ClassPathOpener.process(ClassPathOpener.java:144) at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.processOne(Main.java:632) at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.processAllFiles(Main.java:510) at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.runMonoDex(Main.java:280) at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.run(Main.java:246) at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.main(Main.java:215) at com.android.dx.command.Main.main(Main.java:106) ...while parsing build/classes/main/com/utils/helpers/DateTimeAdapter.class 

I have a compiler level installed in java 7 in both Android Studio and Eclipse, and adding sourceCompatibility and targetCompatibility in the build.gradle file did not solve this problem. The JDK path is also set correctly in both IDEs.

I found out that 0034 is hex for Java 8, but it is not even installed on my machine.

I also tried editing proguard.bat suggested in this thread with no luck.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Answer 1

Even if the class was compiled with Java 7, and the javap -verbose said so when I opened the .class file in Android Studio, it showed the Decompiled.class file, bytecode version: 52.0 (Java 8) at the top of the screen.

In the end, deleting and compiling the jar did the trick again.