npm ERR! Error: EPERM: operation not permitted [Solved]

# npm ERR! Error: EPERM: operation not permitted [Solved]

To solve the error "npm ERR! Error: EPERM: operation not permitted":

1. Close your IDE (e.g. Visual Studio Code) and stop your development server.
2. Clean the cache and delete node_modules and package-lock.json.
3. Rerun the npm install command.

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npm ERR! path C:\Users\bobbyhadz\Desktop\my_project
npm ERR! code EPERM
npm ERR! errno -4048
npm ERR! syscall lstat
npm ERR! Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, lstat 'C:\Users\bobbyhadz\Desktop\my_project'
npm ERR!     at Error (native)

npm ERR! Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, rename C:\Users\bobbyhadz\Desktop\my_project

The first thing you should try is to:

• Stop your development server if it's running.
• Close your IDE (e.g. Visual Studio Code) if you have your project open.
• If you have your project open in Explorer, close the windows.

Open your terminal in your project's root directory and run the following commands.

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# 👇️ clean your npm cache
npm cache clean --force

# 👇️  (Windows) delete node_modules and package-lock.json
rd /s /q "node_modules"
del package-lock.json
del -f yarn.lock

# 👇️  (macOS/Linux) delete node_modules and package-lock.json
rm -rf node_modules
rm -f package-lock.json
rm -f yarn.lock

# 👇️ update your npm version
npm install -g npm@latest --force

# 👇️ clean npm cache
npm cache clean --force

# 👇️ install packages
npm install

If you get a permissions error on Windows, open CMD as an administrator and rerun the command.

To open CMD as an administrator:

1. Click on the Search bar and type CMD.

2. Right-click on the Command Prompt application and click "Run as administrator".

3. Rerun the command.

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npm install -g npm@latest

npm install -g npm@latest --force

Another thing you can try is to run the npm install command with the --force option.

Make sure your terminal is opened in the root directory of your project (where your package.json) file is.

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npm install --force

If you can't get npm to work, try using yarn instead.

You can try to open CMD as an administrator (Windows) or prefix your npm command with sudo (macOS or Linux) if you haven't.

If you created your project in a directory you have no permission to write to, e.g. C:\my_project, you can try creating your project in a different directory or drive, e.g. D:\projects\my_project.

If your IDE (e.g. Visual Studio Code) or dev server is running in the background, it might be blocking the npm command you are trying to issue.

Try closing your IDE and development server before issuing the command.