How to Fix: LibreOffice requires a Java runtime environment Error

arindam

8 months ago

This quick guide explains how you can fix the LibreOffice requires a Java runtime environment (JRE) error in Windows, Linux and macOS.

LibreOffice – the free office suite requires a Java runtime environment for some of its functionalities. For example, some plugins, extensions, and Python macros require Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to work.

Lack of JRE would cause the below error in LibreOffice:

LibreOffice requires a Java runtime environment (JRE) to perform this task. Please install a JRE (and libreoffice-java-common) and restart LibreOffice.

This happens when JRE is not installed in your OS – either Windows or Linux. So, in this guide, we will fix it or try to fix it.

This guide covers the following topics:

How to check if LibreOffice detected Java Runtime Environment
Fix for Windows
Fix for Ubuntu and Other Derivatives
Fix for Fedora
Basic Troubleshooting

Before you go ahead and try to fix via installing JRE, firstly, you have to check whether Java Runtime Environment is installed in your system or not.

Table of Contents

How to check if LibreOffice detected Java Runtime Environment

Before you install Java Runtime Environment to fix the issue, follow the below steps to check whether Java is installed and LibreOffice can detect it.

Open LibreOffice (calc, Impress, etc).
For Windows, Linux – go to from Menu : Tools -> Options -> Advanced Under LibreOffice.
For macOS click LibreOffice > Preferences from main menu.
Under the Java Options window, you will see it listed if Java is installed. If not, there will not be any entries.

LibreOffice Options Dialog – Before JRE Installation (Figure 2)

How to Fix JRE Error – LibreOffice

Fixing the JRE error in LibreOffice is different in Windows and Linux systems. Follow the steps below accordingly.

Windows

Download Oracle Java Runtime Environment from the official link below and install it on Windows. This link will take you to manual installation for Windows 10 with an offline installer.
Select “Windows Offline (64-bit)”.

Download Java Runtime Environment for Windows

After downloading, click on jre-***.-windows-x64.exe to install. It should open up a window like below. Do not change the destination folder. Click Install.

After successful installation, you should see below message.

Now, it’s time to verify Java installation in Windows.
By default, Java setup installs it in C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_231

Java Installation Directory in Windows 10 (Figure 5)

Close all the LibreOffice instances.

Restart LibreOffice and perform the task which gave you the error. You should not be receiving the error anymore.
Verify from Tools -> Options -> Advanced that LibreOffice detected the Java runtime correctly.

Java is detected by LibreOffice in Windows 10 (Figure 6)

Linux, Ubuntu, RHEL, Fedora

Ubuntu, Linux Mint and other Ubuntu-based systems

If you are running Ubuntu, open the terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and run the below commands:

sudo apt install default-jre

sudo apt install libreoffice-java-common

Fedora

For Fedora, run the below commands

sudo dnf install default-jre libreoffice-java-common

Once the installation is finished, close all instances of LibreOffice.

Restart LibreOffice and perform the task which you were doing, causing the error.

You should not be receiving any more errors.

Download the related package (RPM, etc.) for other Linux distributions from the official Oracle download page.

If you have successfully installed the Java Runtime Environment, then go to Tools -> Options -> Advanced again, and you can see Java is listed (see below). Select the JRE and press OK.

LibreOffice Options Dialog – After JRE Installation (Figure 7)

macOS

For macOS, you need JDK from a different location from Oracle. The standard JRE installer from the above won’t work.
Go to the below link and download the dmg file. See Figure 8.
- Download Java for macOS
Open Finder and go to Downloads folder. Double-click on the dmg file. See Figure 9.
In the setup window, follow the on-screen instructions to install JDK. See Figure 10.
The Java installation path is at /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-21.jdk/Contents/Home for macOS JDK 21. You can use “Go to” from Finder menu to go to the folder.
Open LibreOffice, and go to LibreOffice > Preferences > Advanced. And you can see the Java is detected as shown in below. See Figure 11.
Note: If it is not detected for macOS, you can use Finder “Go to” to the above path. Then add a shortcut from File > Add to sidebar. Then open LibreOffice > Preferences > Advanced and click Add to choose the said path for manual detection.

Open the dmg file from Finder (Figure 9)

Complete the JDK installation in macOS (Figure 10)

JRE is detected in LibreOffice on macOS (Figure 11)

Troubleshooting

If you cannot find Java Runtime Environment after installing JRE, click on the Add button and browse-select the directory where Java is installed.

For Windows 10, Java is typically installed in C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-***. OR C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre**** Select the jdk/jre folder and click Ok.

After successful installation, always close all LibreOffice instances and check whether Java is detected.

If that still doesn’t work, then try restarting your system.

Conclusion

The above steps should solve the JRE error for LibreOffice. If you still face the error, drop a comment below with the LibreOffice and OS versions.

Don’t forget to let us know if this solves the problem for the benefit of others.