Android Device Monitor will not launch, either from Android Studio or from Terminal — Unsupported major.minor version 52.0

Question

This is real and frequent pain. This time around this is how my my current state is:

• I'm on Mac
• Have jenv installed to hold-n-play with multiple versions of Java 6 through 9
• Have JAVA_HOME configured to Java 8
• Using Android Studio 3.0 Canary 5

When I try to launch Android Device Monitor (wither from IDE or from terminal), it fails with the following error messages in the log:

!SESSION 2017-07-01 16:43:12.457 -----------------------------------------------
eclipse.buildId=unknown
java.version=1.6.0_65
java.vendor=Apple Inc.
BootLoader constants: OS=macosx, ARCH=x86_64, WS=cocoa, NL=en_US
Framework arguments:  -keyring /Users/myname/.eclipse_keyring -showlocation
Command-line arguments:  -os macosx -ws cocoa -arch x86_64 -data @noDefault -keyring /Users/myname/.eclipse_keyring -showlocation    

...
!ENTRY org.eclipse.osgi 4 0 2017-07-01 16:43:13.674
!MESSAGE Application error
!STACK 1
org.eclipse.core.runtime.CoreException: Plug-in com.android.ide.eclipse.monitor was unable to load class com.android.ide.eclipse.monitor.MonitorApplication.
    at org.eclipse.core.internal.registry.osgi.RegistryStrategyOSGI.throwException(RegistryStrategyOSGI.java:194)
    at org.eclipse.core.internal.registry.osgi.RegistryStrategyOSGI.createExecutableExtension(RegistryStrategyOSGI.java:176)
    at org.eclipse.core.internal.registry.ExtensionRegistry.createExecutableExtension(ExtensionRegistry.java:905)
    at org.eclipse.core.internal.registry.ConfigurationElement.createExecutableExtension(ConfigurationElement.java:243)
    at org.eclipse.core.internal.registry.ConfigurationElementHandle.createExecutableExtension(ConfigurationElementHandle.java:55)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:191)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:110)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:79)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:353)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:180)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:629)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:584)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1438)
Caused by: org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseLazyStarter$TerminatingClassNotFoundException: An error occurred while automatically activating bundle com.android.ide.eclipse.monitor (5).
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseLazyStarter.postFindLocalClass(EclipseLazyStarter.java:122)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.findLocalClass(ClasspathManager.java:469)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.baseadaptor.DefaultClassLoader.findLocalClass(DefaultClassLoader.java:216)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findLocalClass(BundleLoader.java:395)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClassInternal(BundleLoader.java:464)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClass(BundleLoader.java:421)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClass(BundleLoader.java:412)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.baseadaptor.DefaultClassLoader.loadClass(DefaultClassLoader.java:107)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:247)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.loadClass(BundleLoader.java:340)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleHost.loadClass(BundleHost.java:229)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.AbstractBundle.loadClass(AbstractBundle.java:1212)
    at org.eclipse.core.internal.registry.osgi.RegistryStrategyOSGI.createExecutableExtension(RegistryStrategyOSGI.java:174)
    ... 15 more
Caused by: org.osgi.framework.BundleException: The activator com.android.ide.eclipse.monitor.MonitorPlugin for bundle com.android.ide.eclipse.monitor is invalid
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.AbstractBundle.loadBundleActivator(AbstractBundle.java:172)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleContextImpl.start(BundleContextImpl.java:679)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleHost.startWorker(BundleHost.java:381)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.AbstractBundle.start(AbstractBundle.java:300)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.util.SecureAction.start(SecureAction.java:440)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.setLazyTrigger(BundleLoader.java:263)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseLazyStarter.postFindLocalClass(EclipseLazyStarter.java:107)
    ... 27 more
Caused by: java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: com/android/prefs/AndroidLocation$AndroidLocationException : Unsupported major.minor version 52.0
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:637)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:621)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.baseadaptor.DefaultClassLoader.defineClass(DefaultClassLoader.java:188)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.defineClassHoldingLock(ClasspathManager.java:632)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.defineClass(ClasspathManager.java:614)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.findClassImpl(ClasspathManager.java:568)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.findLocalClassImpl(ClasspathManager.java:492)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.findLocalClass(ClasspathManager.java:465)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.baseadaptor.DefaultClassLoader.findLocalClass(DefaultClassLoader.java:216)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findLocalClass(BundleLoader.java:395)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.SingleSourcePackage.loadClass(SingleSourcePackage.java:35)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClassInternal(BundleLoader.java:461)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClass(BundleLoader.java:421)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClass(BundleLoader.java:412)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.baseadaptor.DefaultClassLoader.loadClass(DefaultClassLoader.java:107)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:247)
    at com.android.ide.eclipse.monitor.MonitorPlugin.<clinit>(MonitorPlugin.java:28)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:357)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:310)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.AbstractBundle.loadBundleActivator(AbstractBundle.java:167)
    ... 33 more

Your help is indeed appreciated..

Answer 1

This is what I'm doing as a workaround for now.

• Use Android Studio 3.0 Canary build that comes with inbuilt "Android Profiler". You can see it between Terminal and LogCat tabs at the bottom of your IDE.
• Download MAT for anlysing heapdump. This is a standalone version that usually comes bundled with DDMS. Download it if you'd want to analyze heapdump. And do make sure you copy it in your Applications directory, if you're using Mac. I had tried running it from Downloads directory in vain thinking it doesn't work.