npm install permission denied (macOS)

Question

To install a Bootstrap theme I want to run npm install. However I always receive a permission denied error.

I already tried nvm and then switched with nvm use 10.9.0 to run npm install.

I also tried sudo chown -R $(whoami) ~/.npmand sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local/lib/node_modules. Neither solved it and now I am bit out of ideas how I can continue. I use macOS High Sierra.

Marcs-MBP-3:masterclass Marc$ npm install
npm WARN deprecated gulp-uglifyjs@0.6.2: Since gulp-sourcemaps now works, use gulp-uglify instead
npm WARN deprecated babel-preset-es2015@6.24.1:   Thanks for using Babel: we recommend using babel-preset-env now: please read babeljs.io/env to update! 
npm WARN deprecated browserslist@1.7.7: Browserslist 2 could fail on reading Browserslist >3.0 config used in other tools.
npm WARN checkPermissions Missing write access to /Users/Marc/Desktop/Dev/masterclass/node_modules
npm ERR! path /Users/Marc/Desktop/Dev/masterclass/node_modules
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! errno -13
npm ERR! syscall access
npm ERR! Error: EACCES: permission denied, access '/Users/Marc/Desktop/Dev/masterclass/node_modules'
npm ERR!  { [Error: EACCES: permission denied, access '/Users/Marc/Desktop/Dev/masterclass/node_modules']
npm ERR!   stack:
npm ERR!    'Error: EACCES: permission denied, access \'/Users/Marc/Desktop/Dev/masterclass/node_modules\'',
npm ERR!   errno: -13,
npm ERR!   code: 'EACCES',
npm ERR!   syscall: 'access',
npm ERR!   path: '/Users/Marc/Desktop/Dev/masterclass/node_modules' }
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! The operation was rejected by your operating system.
npm ERR! It is likely you do not have the permissions to access this file as the current user
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! If you believe this might be a permissions issue, please double-check the
npm ERR! permissions of the file and its containing directories, or try running
npm ERR! the command again as root/Administrator (though this is not recommended).

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/Marc/.npm/_logs/2018-08-22T12_46_51_786Z-debug.log

The solutions here are all "how"s to solve this, but none of them answers as to "why" this error is happening, does anyone know?? I encountered this sort of permission denied issue when trying to install some other library from github. — Awshaf Ishtiaque, Oct 25 '22 at 22:52

score 154 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 03 '19 at 18:52

154

For Mac;

Run this on the Terminal >

sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local/lib/node_modules

answered Sep 03 '19 at 18:52

Yunus ER

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6

Can confirm, ran into this issue on Mac OS Catalina and this solved the issue – M.W. Felker Apr 22 '20 at 20:24
4

This corrects the issue on MacOS High Sierra as well. – Chris McGlade May 10 '20 at 20:19
I also tried this today, and it worked for me, using Mac OS Catalina ‍♂️ – Precious Omonze Oct 11 '20 at 23:02
9

On Big Sur, sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local/bin – May 08 '21 at 19:43
This fixed my problem in Mac – Punreach Rany Jun 18 '21 at 14:00
1

Works on Mac OS monterey as well – Daniel Sogbey Aug 14 '22 at 09:05
Didn't work for me. I'm using macOS Monterey v12.5 – Gass Sep 05 '22 at 10:53
Workd for me on monterey 12.6 – Paula Livingstone Oct 02 '22 at 18:17
1

Months without updating firebase-tools and this command fixed it, thanks, working on MAC OS ventura – anDres Jan 02 '23 at 20:39
1

Works on Ventura 13.1 – Shiro Feb 19 '23 at 00:39

score 30 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 25 '21 at 00:35

30

I tried everything in this thread with no luck on Big Sur, but then I tried this:

sudo npm install -g yarn

And it worked!

answered Sep 25 '21 at 00:35

Meowsleydale

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After a day tried, i solved my issue. thanks @Meowsleydale – jalil_cse Nov 29 '21 at 18:52

score 27 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 21 '21 at 14:33

27

KIndly run the below commands:

To check the location of the package:

npm config get prefix
Then run this :

sudo chown -R $(whoami) $(npm config get prefix)/{lib/node_modules,bin,share}
Enter the password and run installation commands

It worked for me.

edited Feb 21 '21 at 14:33

Ramil Aliyev 007

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answered Feb 21 '21 at 11:40

Shashikala

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3

Correct solution for my case. – Yohan W. Dunon Mar 06 '22 at 03:26
3

Fixed the issue for me, thanks – Max Liapkalo Mar 09 '22 at 15:46
1

can confirm this worked for me on Ventura. – junPac May 03 '23 at 08:20
after uploading Big Sur had a zillion problems....the above 2 commands allowed me to see my React App after staring at a blank screen for 48 hours...kudos – Immanuel Jaeggi May 30 '23 at 15:10

score 26 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 22 '18 at 14:20

Check permissions of your project root with ls -l /Users/Marc/Desktop/Dev/masterclass/. If the owner is not $USER, delete your node_modules directory, try changing the owner of that directory instead and run npm install again.

cd /Users/Marc/Desktop/Dev
rm -rf ./masterclass/node_mdoules/
chown -R $USER ./masterclass/
cd masterclass    
npm install

score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 23 '20 at 08:03

7

For me it was,

npm cache clean --force
rm -rf node_modules
npm install

I tried deleting manually but didn't help

answered Jul 23 '20 at 08:03

Sigex

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score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 14 '21 at 20:51

2

I did this for nodemon and it work

sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local/lib/node_modules

then install the packages that you need

answered Jul 14 '21 at 20:51

abdullah gharbain

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5

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 10 '19 at 17:24

I was having a similar issue, but the accepted answer did not work for me, so I will post my solution in case anyone else comes along needing it.

I was running npm install in a project cloned from GitHub and during the clone, for whatever reason the write permission was not actually set on the project directory. To check if this is your problem, pull up Terminal and enter the following:

cd path/to/project/parent/directory
ls -l

If the directory has user write access, the output will include a w in the first group of permissions:

drwxr-xr-x  15 user  staff  480 Sep 10 12:21 project-name

This assumes that you're trying to access a project in the home directory structure of the current user. To make sure that the current user owns the project directory, follow the instructions in the accepted answer.

score 1 · Answer 8 · edited Jul 11 '20 at 15:52

1

I entered the following:

cd /Users/Marc/Desktop/Dev
rm -rf ./masterclass/node_mdoules/
chown -R $USER ./masterclass/
cd masterclass    
npm install

once this was completed the results indicated warnings and one notice instead of previous result of no permission and error.

I then entered the following:

% sudo npm install --global firebase-tools

my result was success upon completion of the last terminal entry.

edited Jul 11 '20 at 15:52

Hoppo

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answered Jul 11 '20 at 15:35

Joseph DeWeese

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awesome, I had the firebase-tools installation problem as well – Rhm Akbari Jan 10 '21 at 04:26

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 28 '21 at 11:51

I have same problem because i install it from pkg, and i solve this problem use below step:

1. sudo rm -rf  /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/
2. brew doctor
3. brew cleanup --prune-prefix ( or sudo rm -f /usr/local/include/node)
4. brew install node

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 17 '22 at 13:00

1

i use this command : sudo npm install -g @angular/cli Gave password and worked for mw. Took 10 secs to install angular

answered Jan 17 '22 at 13:00

Sudhir Gaurav

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1
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score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 13 '22 at 06:11

1

For Macs running Big Sur or Monterey:

sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local/bin

answered Jul 13 '22 at 06:11

Japes

393
5
11

score 1 · Answer 12 · edited Feb 06 '23 at 16:05

1

Ok my problem was that I thought I was installing on the path:

/Users/mauro/Documents/dev/react

Where my project was setup, but instead I was doing it on:

Users/mauro/Documents/dev/

One path higher and that is why it did not perform the installation in my case.

I simply did: cd react and voila I was able to install without problem

edited Feb 06 '23 at 16:05

Tyler2P

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answered Feb 03 '23 at 15:24

MAUROEPCE

21
1

score 0 · Answer 13 · edited Mar 09 '21 at 15:43

0

NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX=~/.npm-global

Copy this line into ur terminal, then hit enter. Then install the necessary packages you need WITHOUT the term "sudo" in front of npm.

i.e.,

npm install -g jshint

edited Mar 09 '21 at 15:43

Shayan Shafiq

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answered Jun 05 '20 at 12:29

hokage_sama

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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Jan 19 '22 at 13:52

0

the only thing that work on me sudo npm i -g clasp --unsafe-perm

answered Jan 19 '22 at 13:52

john foreign PH

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score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Feb 28 '22 at 10:45

0

Just do :

sudo npm install -g @sanity/cli && sanity init

it will ask sudo password and you are good to go

answered Feb 28 '22 at 10:45

sylvain s

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score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Mar 02 '22 at 04:19

0

That is because you dont have the "node modules". You can install with this code:

npm install -g node-modules

then, create your react app with npm init react-app my-app

answered Mar 02 '22 at 04:19

Mapu456

1

theamrll · Answer 17 · 2022-11-18T03:23:15.450

-1

Run on macOS Terminal:

sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local/bin

It will ask for the password then you're good to go!

Hope this helps.

edited Nov 18 '22 at 03:23

answered Nov 18 '22 at 03:21

theamrll

1
1

npm install permission denied (macOS)

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