Java broken under Mavericks

You rock indeed. It worked for me. FYI I also removed some Java files in the Launch Demons and Launch Agents folders. So far so good. Thank you for posting this information.

I tried all of the above and nothing worked. Eventually I ran across this post:

http://bemyblog.com/2014/02/24/how-to-enable-java-7-in-the-browser-on-mavericks/

Yeah, at long last I finally have Java enabled...

Removing all the files/directories that Peter Rock mentioned didn't resolve my issue. On a hunch, I took the following steps to get rid of any preference settings that were interfering with enabling the java in the browser. Your mileage may vary.

• In Finder go to the ~/Library folder and search for files that contain both "java" and "plist" in the filename
• Delete the files
• Restart
• Reinstall java 7 (I used the one from Oracle here http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk7-downloads-1880260.h tml).

Only then was I able to go to the Java control panel and have the "Enable java content in the browser" setting stick.

The files I deleted included:

com.apple.java.JavaPreferences.0016cb9e2748.plist

com.apple.java.applet.plist

com.apple.java.JavaPreferences.plist

com.apple.java.security.plist

JavaApplicationStub.plist

For me, on two different macs - a laptop and imac both running Mavericks 10.9.3 - the Java control panel would not allow for web access to be granted (submit would not stick, security level greyed out and couldn't be adjusted), and Safari couldn't load the java plugin.

Spent literally all day on this and the solutions here and on other threads would not fix the issues after multiple attempts to remove all/old java instances and re-install latest Java v7, Java v6, Java for OS X 2014-001 etc.

I tried Peter's suggestions and some of the follow-ups removing various java files by hand and restarting, re-installing, with no luck. Tired and ******-off I tossed everything I could find relating to java in the trash which then broke the OS's ability to complete the v7 installation - generating errors.

Defeated, I then did an OS reinstall via internet (command-R). Interestingly, a Safari security update - that was not available previously - magically appeared. Ran that. I then tested the java plugin in Safari on java.com and it was now working, showing that I had the latest version of java installed. Finally, I ran the java v7 installer again, which worked and gave me a working control panel in system preferences where I could enable web access settings.

Not a series of steps I would recommend or can explain but this is how I finally got java working on Mavericks. Figured I should post in case someone smarter than I can parse. Thanks for the ideas and fixes posted here.

And a rant to close. My wife is taking online courses running on Blackboard, which requires java. I hope there is a special place in **** for software developers that force down its users' throats Oracle's broken, insecure, bloated nightmare that is called java.

When entering the sudo commands, I am a little anxious. Do I just copy and paste what is typed in those boxes? Because some have a space/" " after the command, e.g.; sudo mkdir -p /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/disabled ", however the next command does not. I'm a bit touch and go with the terminal, could you please advise.

Thank you!

Peter Rock, thank you for the detailed solution. I have been struggling for months trying to find a solution. Running 10.9.4 upgraded from 10.8. Solved the issue for me.

I had to clean two more locations to get rid of all instances of Java on my laptop. Below are the Terminal command I've used to locate those instances:

eugen$ java -version

java version "1.7.0_71"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_71-b14)

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.71-b01, mixed mode)

eugen$ java -version

java version "1.6.0_65"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_65-b14-462-11M4609)

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.65-b04-462, mixed mode)

eugen$ /usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6

/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home

eugen$ java -version

No Java runtime present, requesting install.

I installed then the most recent 1.7.71 Java JDK, and rebooted the laptop. Much to my chagrin, the Security -> Enable Java content in the browser checkbox is still not functional. Does anyone have an idea on which configuration/settings file is that value stored so I can modify it right there instead of the Java Control Panel?

Through no shortage of efforts I got it to work! It sure helped that I removed all the *java*.plist files I could lay my hands on! I also picked to install only JRE and not JDK, so there'll be fewer moving parts; not sure if that in particular helped, but that's what I did.

I thought I would update this to also include Mac OS 10.10 Yosemite. I had the same persistent problem regarding "enable java content in browser" not working.

In addition to the great suggestions of Peter

-- /library/preferencepanes there is a file called "JavaControlPanel.prefPane" move that to trash

--/library/ move the Java folder to the trash

--/library/ move the Oracle folder to the trash

It was this post that I missed from Michael_505 that was the additional key:

"...also deleted the folders /Library/Application Support/Oracle and ~/Library/Application Support/Oracle and it works now."

More specifically I believe the offending file inhibiting the java enable is in this directory:

/Library/Application Support/Oracle

Also to note this worked for me for installing the latest version of Java which is V 8 Update 25 as of Jan 1, 2015 on

10.10 Yosemite.

It was this post that I missed from Michael_505 that was the additional key:

"...also deleted the folders /Library/Application Support/Oracle and ~/Library/Application Support/Oracle and it works now."

More specifically I believe the offending file inhibiting the java enable is in this directory:

/Library/Application Support/Oracle

This has worked numerous times for me in upgrading, clear through the latest upgrade, 10.10.3 (Yosemite). I need to have an earlier version of Java for certain apps that require it (Java for Macintosh 2013-2014). It was also called Java SE for Mac, and is an Apple compilation of Java (SDK, I believe). Java JRE has since been outdated in later browsers which now are being released directly by Oracle.

So, I require both installed and for a while, they seem to co-exist, sort of. Be sure to repair permissions in Disk Utility after these have been installed and work properly.

I just had to do this after moving to a new machine with Yosemite. It had Java 6 (from restoring user from full backup,) I installed 7, Java control panel would not let me enable the plugin. So I deleted all things Oracle under /Library and ~/Library and /Library/Java

After that, verified in terminal, with "java -version" that it had no idea what java was and then reinstalled the latest Java 7 JDK.

Working fine now.