Compiler error "archive for required library could not be read" - Spring Tool Suite

Indeed IDEs often cache the local repository (Eclipse does something similar, and I have to relaunch Eclipse).

One ugly maven behavior you might encounter is that if you declare a dependency before you actually install it, maven will create an empty version of the missing dependency (folder with metadata but no jar), and you will have to manually clean your .m2 repository.

Third, an installed archive (jar...) can get corrupted, so try to open it with any archive tool (7zip...) to test it, and delete the whole folder if the archive is corrupted.

In my case I had to manually delete all the files in .m2\repository folder and then open command prompt and run mvn -install command in my project directory.

I was using Eclipse as IDE and I was getting very same error. I had to do Project->Maven->Update Project. Select all the checkboxes below except "offline" esp. the one "Force update of snapshots/releases" and click OK. Did the Clean Build for the Project again.