How do I determine the problem with my Java SpringApplication failing to run due to proxyBeansMethods?

Question

I have been trying to determine why a Spring Boot application of mine will not start. I am very new to Spring (and also Java) and I am really unsure of how to solve this issue. Whenever I try to run the application, I get this error:

org.springframework.core.annotation.AnnotationConfigurationException: Attribute 'proxyBeanMethods' in annotation [org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication] is declared as an @AliasFor nonexistent attribute 'proxyBeanMethods' in annotation [org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration].; nested exception is java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration.proxyBeanMethods()
    at org.springframework.core.annotation.AnnotationUtils$AliasDescriptor.<init>(AnnotationUtils.java:2166) ~[spring-core-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.core.annotation.AnnotationUtils$AliasDescriptor.from(AnnotationUtils.java:2134) ~[spring-core-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.core.annotation.AnnotationUtils$AliasDescriptor.getOtherDescriptors(AnnotationUtils.java:2298) ~[spring-core-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.core.annotation.AnnotationUtils$AliasDescriptor.getAttributeAliasNames(AnnotationUtils.java:2285) ~[spring-core-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.core.annotation.AnnotationUtils.getAttributeAliasNames(AnnotationUtils.java:1795) ~[spring-core-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.core.annotation.AnnotationUtils.getAttributeAliasMap(AnnotationUtils.java:1704) ~[spring-core-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.core.annotation.AnnotationUtils.postProcessAnnotationAttributes(AnnotationUtils.java:1322) ~[spring-core-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.core.annotation.AnnotatedElementUtils.getMergedAnnotationAttributes(AnnotatedElementUtils.java:365) ~[spring-core-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.core.type.StandardAnnotationMetadata.getAnnotationAttributes(StandardAnnotationMetadata.java:121) ~[spring-core-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigUtils.attributesFor(AnnotationConfigUtils.java:291) ~[spring-context-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationBeanNameGenerator.determineBeanNameFromAnnotation(AnnotationBeanNameGenerator.java:93) ~[spring-context-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationBeanNameGenerator.generateBeanName(AnnotationBeanNameGenerator.java:72) ~[spring-context-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotatedBeanDefinitionReader.doRegisterBean(AnnotatedBeanDefinitionReader.java:224) ~[spring-context-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotatedBeanDefinitionReader.registerBean(AnnotatedBeanDefinitionReader.java:145) ~[spring-context-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotatedBeanDefinitionReader.register(AnnotatedBeanDefinitionReader.java:135) ~[spring-context-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.BeanDefinitionLoader.load(BeanDefinitionLoader.java:158) ~[spring-boot-2.0.5.RELEASE.jar:2.0.5.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.BeanDefinitionLoader.load(BeanDefinitionLoader.java:135) ~[spring-boot-2.0.5.RELEASE.jar:2.0.5.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.BeanDefinitionLoader.load(BeanDefinitionLoader.java:127) ~[spring-boot-2.0.5.RELEASE.jar:2.0.5.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.load(SpringApplication.java:722) ~[spring-boot-2.0.5.RELEASE.jar:2.0.5.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.prepareContext(SpringApplication.java:407) ~[spring-boot-2.0.5.RELEASE.jar:2.0.5.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:331) ~[spring-boot-2.0.5.RELEASE.jar:2.0.5.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1277) ~[spring-boot-2.0.5.RELEASE.jar:2.0.5.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1265) ~[spring-boot-2.0.5.RELEASE.jar:2.0.5.RELEASE]
    at com.codeclan.example.WhiskyTracker.WhiskyTrackerApplication.main(WhiskyTrackerApplication.java:9) ~[classes/:na]
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) ~[na:na]
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) ~[na:na]
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[na:na]
    at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:564) ~[na:na]
    at org.springframework.boot.devtools.restart.RestartLauncher.run(RestartLauncher.java:49) ~[spring-boot-devtools-2.0.5.RELEASE.jar:2.0.5.RELEASE]
Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration.proxyBeanMethods()
    at java.base/java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethod(Class.java:2553) ~[na:na]
    at org.springframework.core.annotation.AnnotationUtils$AliasDescriptor.<init>(AnnotationUtils.java:2159) ~[spring-core-5.0.9.RELEASE.jar:5.0.9.RELEASE]
    ... 28 common frames omitted

Process finished with exit code 0

Since others have had similar errors, I have tried following different guides, particularly this one (https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/issues/18190), which recommends running commands such as "mvn dependency:purge-local-repository and then and try to download the bits again." After figuring out I had to get maven installed on my terminal line using brew install maven, I then tried to run the recommended command. But the application still does not work, and yields the same error as before. Further more, I don't know what "download the bits again" refers to. Other posts refer to "mismatched Spring Framework jar files on the class path" as a potential source for the error, but I also don't know what that refers to either. My attempts at googling explanations and/or alternative solutions have been unsuccessful thus far.

I have seen other people with this error (proxyBeanMthods annotation error when running springboot application) and there seems to be a consensus that the problem is a discrepancy between Spring Boot 5.1.2 and 5.2, but after having looked through my error output and the output of the command mvn dependency:list -Dsort, I only have Spring Boot framework 5.2 as a dependency. So I'm really unsure what the problem exactly is, and how exactly I can tackle this. If someone more experienced can break this down for me, I would really appreciate it.

Here is a copy of my pom.xml file, if this helps:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.codeclan.example</groupId>
    <artifactId>WhiskyTracker</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>

    <name>WhiskyTracker</name>
    <description>Demo project for Spring Boot</description>

    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.0.5.RELEASE</version>
        <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
    </parent>

    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
        <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.xml.bind</groupId>
            <artifactId>jaxb-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.0</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
            <artifactId>h2</artifactId>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.data</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-data-jpa</artifactId>
            <version>2.2.7.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-autoconfigure</artifactId>
            <version>2.2.7.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 17 '20 at 16:17

2

Unless you are limited to the older version of the Spring starter parent, try just updating to a more recent version. I used your pom to confirm that version 2.3.0 does not have this issue. You can do this by changing this pom section:

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>2.0.5.RELEASE</version>
    <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
</parent>

to this:

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.0.RELEASE</version>
    <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
</parent>

This Spring starter parent is just a parent project to manage dependencies, configuration, etc. for Spring Boot. Here is a great description:

https://www.baeldung.com/spring-boot-starter-parent

To avoid these kind of problems, here is a great place to start a Spring Java project:

https://start.spring.io/

answered May 17 '20 at 16:17

Thomas Portwood

1,031
8
13

I use the start.spring.io site for making my Spring Java projects, but this project I inherited from my online course and I had to modify it myself to get it to do what I wanted. Anyways, I made the changed and got the error `WARNING: An illegal reflective access operation has occurred`, so I might need to shut down IntelliJ for now and see if I can reimport my Maven dependencies. – Bob McBobson May 17 '20 at 16:45
Ah I see, understood. Could you paste a follow-on section in your question with the entire trace from the failure? A warning like this would not cause the application to fail completely. – Thomas Portwood May 17 '20 at 17:22
Ok, I have a new error now. It is very long and I cannot post it entirely here in the comments, but it starts with `org.h2.jdbc.JdbcSQLNonTransientException: General error: "java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to read the page at position 549755823616 [1.4.200/6]" [50000-200]`. Is this a problem now with the H2 dependency? – Bob McBobson May 17 '20 at 17:36
Yep, you got it. Sounds like an issue with the h2 driver. If the answer above got you past the specific issue for this question, do you mind accepting and posting a new question? I know that it inconvenient, but it will help others. In addition, the h2 issue seems to already have been brought up here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58453106/how-to-fix-embedded-h2-database-nontransienterror-unable-to-read-the-page-at – Thomas Portwood May 17 '20 at 18:32
Thanks for your help! But I think that I know have opened a snake's nest of mismatched dependencies and for the sake of time I might just start with a blank slate and then copy+paste the appropriate code in the right places. – Bob McBobson May 17 '20 at 18:40
Yep I totally agree, glad to hear you're on the right track. – Thomas Portwood May 17 '20 at 20:09

How do I determine the problem with my Java SpringApplication failing to run due to proxyBeansMethods?

1 Answers1