ERROR Source option 1.5 is no longer supported. Use 1.6 or later

Question

You can specify maven source/target version by adding these properties to your pom.xml file

<properties>
    <maven.compiler.source>1.6</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>1.6</maven.compiler.target>
</properties>

I think this means that

• You are using JDK9 or later
• Your project uses maven-compiler-plugin with an old version which defaults to Java 5.

You have three options to solve this

1. Downgrade to JDK7 or JDK8 (meh)

2. Use maven-compiler-plugin version or later, because

   NOTE: Since 3.8.0 the default value has changed from 1.5 to 1.6 See https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-compiler-plugin/compile-mojo.html#target

   <plugin>
       <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
       <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
       <version>3.8.0</version>
   </plugin>
   

3. Indicate to the maven-compiler-plugin to use source level 6 and target 6 (or later).

   Best practice recommended by https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-compiler-plugin/

   Also note that at present the default source setting is 1.6 and the default target setting is 1.6, independently of the JDK you run Maven with. You are highly encouraged to change these defaults by setting source and target as described in Setting the -source and -target of the Java Compiler.

   <plugin>
       <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
       <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
       <configuration>
           <source>1.6</source>
           <target>1.6</target>
       </configuration>
   </plugin>
   

   or use

   <properties>
     <maven.compiler.source>1.6</maven.compiler.source>
     <maven.compiler.target>1.6</maven.compiler.target>
   </properties>
   

This error might be also for plugin versions. You can fix it in the .POM file like the followings:

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.1</version>
            <configuration>
                <source>1.6</source>
                <target>1.6</target>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

Make sure you have following configuration in your pom.xml file.

<properties>
    <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
</properties>

For me the solution was to set the version of the maven compiler plugin to 3.8.0 and specify the release (9 for in your case, 11 in mine)

    <plugin>
      <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>3.8.0</version>
      <configuration>
        <release>11</release>
      </configuration>
    </plugin>