Run-android build failed for react native project due to not finding tools.jar

Question

I was following a youtube video on installing react native and completely new to this. I put in the command to run-android for react native project and a build error popped up saying I'm missing tools.jar. I saw a previous support thread on here saying that the person didn't have Android Support Repository but I do have it installed. Here's the error

Starting JS server...
Starting the packager in a new window is not supported on Windows yet.
Please start it manually using 'react-native start'.
We believe the best Windows support will come from a community of people
using React Native on Windows on a daily basis.
Would you be up for sending a pull request?
Building and installing the app on the device (cd android && gradlew.bat installDebug)...
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/net/sf/proguard/proguard-gradle/5.2.1/proguard-gradle-5.2.1.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/net/sf/proguard/proguard-parent/5.2.1/proguard-parent-5.2.1.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/squareup/javawriter/2.5.0/javawriter-2.5.0.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/bouncycastle/bcpkix-jdk15on/1.48/bcpkix-jdk15on-1.48.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/bouncycastle/bcprov-jdk15on/1.48/bcprov-jdk15on-1.48.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/ow2/asm/asm/5.0.3/asm-5.0.3.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/ow2/asm/asm-parent/5.0.3/asm-parent-5.0.3.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/ow2/ow2/1.3/ow2-1.3.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/ow2/asm/asm-tree/5.0.3/asm-tree-5.0.3.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/android/tools/jack/jack-api/0.9.0/jack-api-0.9.0.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/android/tools/jill/jill-api/0.9.0/jill-api-0.9.0.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/eclipse/jdt/core/compiler/ecj/4.4.2/ecj-4.4.2.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/net/sf/proguard/proguard-base/5.2.1/proguard-base-5.2.1.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/google/code/gson/gson/2.2.4/gson-2.2.4.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/commons/commons-compress/1.8.1/commons-compress-1.8.1.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/commons/commons-parent/33/commons-parent-33.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/apache/13/apache-13.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/httpcomponents/httpclient/4.1.1/httpclient-4.1.1.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/httpcomponents/httpcomponents-client/4.1.1/httpcomponents-client-4.1.1.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/httpcomponents/project/4.1.1/project-4.1.1.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/httpcomponents/httpmime/4.1/httpmime-4.1.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/httpcomponents/httpcomponents-client/4.1/httpcomponents-client-4.1.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/google/guava/guava/17.0/guava-17.0.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/google/guava/guava-parent/17.0/guava-parent-17.0.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/net/sf/kxml/kxml2/2.3.0/kxml2-2.3.0.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/ow2/asm/asm-analysis/5.0.3/asm-analysis-5.0.3.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/intellij/annotations/12.0/annotations-12.0.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/httpcomponents/httpcore/4.1/httpcore-4.1.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/httpcomponents/httpcomponents-core/4.1/httpcomponents-core-4.1.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/commons-logging/commons-logging/1.1.1/commons-logging-1.1.1.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/commons/commons-parent/5/commons-parent-5.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/commons-codec/commons-codec/1.4/commons-codec-1.4.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/android/tools/external/lombok/lombok-ast/0.2.3/lombok-ast-0.2.3.pom
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/net/sf/proguard/proguard-gradle/5.2.1/proguard-gradle-5.2.1.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/squareup/javawriter/2.5.0/javawriter-2.5.0.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/bouncycastle/bcpkix-jdk15on/1.48/bcpkix-jdk15on-1.48.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/bouncycastle/bcprov-jdk15on/1.48/bcprov-jdk15on-1.48.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/ow2/asm/asm/5.0.3/asm-5.0.3.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/ow2/asm/asm-tree/5.0.3/asm-tree-5.0.3.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/android/tools/jack/jack-api/0.9.0/jack-api-0.9.0.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/android/tools/jill/jill-api/0.9.0/jill-api-0.9.0.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/eclipse/jdt/core/compiler/ecj/4.4.2/ecj-4.4.2.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/net/sf/proguard/proguard-base/5.2.1/proguard-base-5.2.1.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/google/code/gson/gson/2.2.4/gson-2.2.4.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/commons/commons-compress/1.8.1/commons-compress-1.8.1.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/httpcomponents/httpclient/4.1.1/httpclient-4.1.1.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/httpcomponents/httpmime/4.1/httpmime-4.1.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/google/guava/guava/17.0/guava-17.0.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/net/sf/kxml/kxml2/2.3.0/kxml2-2.3.0.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/ow2/asm/asm-analysis/5.0.3/asm-analysis-5.0.3.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/intellij/annotations/12.0/annotations-12.0.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/org/apache/httpcomponents/httpcore/4.1/httpcore-4.1.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/commons-logging/commons-logging/1.1.1/commons-logging-1.1.1.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/commons-codec/commons-codec/1.4/commons-codec-1.4.jar
Download https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/android/tools/external/lombok/lombok-ast/0.2.3/lombok-ast-0.2.3.jar
:app:preBuild UP-TO-DATE
:app:preDebugBuild UP-TO-DATE
:app:checkDebugManifest
:app:preReleaseBuild UP-TO-DATE
:app:prepareComAndroidSupportAppcompatV72301Library UP-TO-DATE
:app:prepareComAndroidSupportRecyclerviewV72301Library UP-TO-DATE
:app:prepareComAndroidSupportSupportV42301Library UP-TO-DATE
:app:prepareComFacebookFrescoDrawee081Library UP-TO-DATE
:app:prepareComFacebookFrescoFbcore081Library UP-TO-DATE
:app:prepareComFacebookFrescoFresco081Library UP-TO-DATE
:app:prepareComFacebookFrescoImagepipeline081Library UP-TO-DATE
:app:prepareComFacebookFrescoImagepipelineOkhttp081Library UP-TO-DATE
:app:prepareComFacebookReactReactNative0191Library UP-TO-DATE
:app:prepareOrgWebkitAndroidJscR174650Library UP-TO-DATE
:app:prepareDebugDependencies
:app:compileDebugAidl UP-TO-DATE
:app:compileDebugRenderscript UP-TO-DATE
:app:generateDebugBuildConfig UP-TO-DATE
:app:generateDebugAssets UP-TO-DATE
:app:mergeDebugAssets UP-TO-DATE
:app:generateDebugResValues UP-TO-DATE
:app:generateDebugResources UP-TO-DATE
:app:mergeDebugResources UP-TO-DATE
:app:bundleDebugJsAndAssets SKIPPED
:app:processDebugManifest UP-TO-DATE
:app:processDebugResources UP-TO-DATE
:app:generateDebugSources UP-TO-DATE
:app:processDebugJavaRes UP-TO-DATE
:app:compileDebugJavaWithJavac FAILED

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':app:compileDebugJavaWithJavac'.
> Could not find tools.jar

* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.

BUILD FAILED

Total time: 30.123 secs
Could not install the app on the device, read the error above for details.
Make sure you have an Android emulator running or a device connected and have
set up your Android development environment:
https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/android-setup.html

I appreciate any help. And if it's possible, can I get simple instructions, a lot of this stuff is new to me but I'll try.

Answer 1

I managed to solve this error by re-installing jdk1.8.0_201 and jre1.8.0_201.

Answer 2

In case you are on Linux, run this to install the missing JDK:

sudo apt-get install default-jdk

Answer 3

A bit late to the party, but I hope this helps!

Probably Java development Kit(JDK) (not to be confused with your regular Java install JRE) isn't installed on your machine or the evironment variables are not setup correctly.

JDK can be downloaded here -> http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index-jsp-138363.html

To setup up your environmental variables go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> System and then to advanced system settings and set to new variables for: variable name = JAVA_HOME variable value = C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_121 (!this might differ depending on your install!)

Tip! to be sure where tools.jar is installed just look it up through the windows explorer search tool, but use the root directory(e.g. jdk1.8.0_121) for the variable value.

close and open your terminal and run the react-native run-android again ;)

Option #2 After downloading JDK like in Option 1 go to the install directory of JDK and look for lib and then for tools.jar in the folder.

e.g C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_121\lib

copy the tools.jar to the android studio installation library

e.g. C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio\lib (again depending on your install )

I hope this was elaborate enough!

Answer 4

set path to JDK - JAVA_HOME.
For example: export JAVA_HOME=/home/user/install/jdk1.7.0_79

It works for me)