[FIXED] java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Malformed \uxxxx encoding while mvn install

Issue

While running mvn install in my project, I end up with this error. While a lot of answers and resources point out errors in / vs \, I want to mention that I have no local changes and this repo just works fine for others in my team. It worked fine for me as well before.

Running on Mac Os 10.15.7 with JDK 1.8.0_291

Please find the full stacktrace:

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Malformed \uxxxx encoding.
    at java.util.Properties.loadConvert (Properties.java:672)
    at java.util.Properties.load0 (Properties.java:455)
    at java.util.Properties.load (Properties.java:408)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.TrackingFileManager.read (TrackingFileManager.java:56)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.DefaultUpdateCheckManager.read (DefaultUpdateCheckManager.java:511)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.DefaultUpdateCheckManager.checkMetadata (DefaultUpdateCheckManager.java:250)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.DefaultMetadataResolver.resolve (DefaultMetadataResolver.java:302)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.DefaultMetadataResolver.resolveMetadata (DefaultMetadataResolver.java:181)
    at org.apache.maven.repository.internal.DefaultVersionRangeResolver.getVersions (DefaultVersionRangeResolver.java:198)
    at org.apache.maven.repository.internal.DefaultVersionRangeResolver.resolveVersionRange (DefaultVersionRangeResolver.java:148)
    at org.apache.maven.repository.internal.DefaultModelResolver.resolveModel (DefaultModelResolver.java:197)
    at org.apache.maven.model.building.DefaultModelBuilder.readParentExternally (DefaultModelBuilder.java:1070)
    at org.apache.maven.model.building.DefaultModelBuilder.readParent (DefaultModelBuilder.java:846)
    at org.apache.maven.model.building.DefaultModelBuilder.build (DefaultModelBuilder.java:337)
    at org.apache.maven.repository.internal.DefaultArtifactDescriptorReader.loadPom (DefaultArtifactDescriptorReader.java:292)
    at org.apache.maven.repository.internal.DefaultArtifactDescriptorReader.readArtifactDescriptor (DefaultArtifactDescriptorReader.java:171)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.resolveCachedArtifactDescriptor (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:538)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.getArtifactDescriptorResult (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:523)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:410)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:362)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.process (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:349)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.doRecurse (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:506)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:458)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:362)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.process (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:349)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.doRecurse (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:506)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:458)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:362)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.process (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:349)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.doRecurse (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:506)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:458)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:362)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.process (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:349)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.doRecurse (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:506)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:458)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:362)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.process (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:349)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.doRecurse (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:506)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:458)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:362)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.process (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:349)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.doRecurse (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:506)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:458)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:362)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.process (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:349)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.doRecurse (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:506)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:458)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.processDependency (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:362)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.process (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:349)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.collect.DefaultDependencyCollector.collectDependencies (DefaultDependencyCollector.java:254)
    at org.eclipse.aether.internal.impl.DefaultRepositorySystem.collectDependencies (DefaultRepositorySystem.java:284)
    at org.apache.maven.project.DefaultProjectDependenciesResolver.resolve (DefaultProjectDependenciesResolver.java:169)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleDependencyResolver.getDependencies (LifecycleDependencyResolver.java:243)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleDependencyResolver.resolveProjectDependencies (LifecycleDependencyResolver.java:147)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.ensureDependenciesAreResolved (MojoExecutor.java:248)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute (MojoExecutor.java:202)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute (MojoExecutor.java:156)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute (MojoExecutor.java:148)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject (LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:117)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject (LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:81)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.builder.singlethreaded.SingleThreadedBuilder.build (SingleThreadedBuilder.java:56)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleStarter.execute (LifecycleStarter.java:128)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute (DefaultMaven.java:305)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute (DefaultMaven.java:192)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute (DefaultMaven.java:105)
    at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.execute (MavenCli.java:957)
    at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.doMain (MavenCli.java:289)
    at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main (MavenCli.java:193)
    at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0 (Native Method)
    at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke (NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:78)
    at jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke (DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke (Method.java:567)
    at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launchEnhanced (Launcher.java:282)
    at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launch (Launcher.java:225)
    at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.mainWithExitCode (Launcher.java:406)
    at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.main (Launcher.java:347)
[ERROR] 

I have already tried the following:

1. Reinstalled java on my mac
2. Reinstalled maven
3. Tried to invalidate cache and restart IntelliJ multiple times.

Solution

Found out that the java version that maven was pointing to was different from the java version I was using. Seems like maven always points to the latest version of java.

First check if this is the issue by running mvn --version

If there is a mismatch in java version set JAVA_HOME by running

export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home)

Now run mvn --version. Maven should point to the right Java version.

When you run mvn install next time, maven automatically picks up the version set in JAVA_HOME

Answered By - Shylajhaa