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I attempted install.packages("RMySQL") and it runs for a second and then says:

Error in install.packages : cannot remove prior installation of package ‘DBI’

I did remove.packages("DBI") and it says:

remove.packages("DBI") Removing package from ‘/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.2/Resources/library’ (as ‘lib’ is unspecified)

Then I retry install.packages("RMySQL") and it says:

Error in install.packages : cannot remove prior installation of package ‘DBI’

The DBI dependency is not actually getting removed or something. Or possibly I removed it from the wrong area? I'm confused.

SUCKYPROGRAMMER
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  • Are you sure you removed `DBI`? What happens if you try `require(DBI)`? – nicola Aug 28 '17 at 15:30
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    Did you try restarting your R session after your ran `remove.packages`? – jsta Aug 28 '17 at 15:36
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    My best guess is `DBI` is attached to your session and probably can't be removed while attached. You may try either restarting your R session with no packages attached, or run `detach("package:DBI", unload=TRUE)`. Then `install.packages` should work. – Benjamin Aug 28 '17 at 15:37
  • jsta. I did try restarting my r session after I ran remove.packages. I got the same result when I tried to install "RMySQL", "Error in install.packages..." – SUCKYPROGRAMMER Aug 28 '17 at 15:49
  • Nicola it says, "loading required package: DBI" after I performed remove.packages("DBI"). Benjamin. I will do that. Thank you all for attempting to help me. I am eternally grateful. – SUCKYPROGRAMMER Aug 28 '17 at 15:51
  • I detached DBI with detach("package:DBI", unload=TRUE) and still got same problem with and without restarting r session after running detach command. I also attempted restarting r session with no packages attached. I detached all packages, ran .rs.restartR(), then tried install.packages and still got the same error. I will add that when it restarted the session, it automatically attached utils package again. – SUCKYPROGRAMMER Aug 28 '17 at 16:25
  • For me, the problem was solved when I restarted RStudio and then updated all the packages. – Rafs Mar 18 '20 at 14:10
  • Make sure that another R process/session that has the package loaded isn't running at the same time you're trying to reinstall the same package. – sbha Mar 26 '21 at 13:43

11 Answers11

24

Try starting R without any startup files to prevent DBI from being loaded (however that happens on your box).

You should then be able to just delete the unattached package.

Alternatively, just remove the DBI/ directory from library directory.

It should look similar to this:

$ R --vanilla     ## prevent inits at load

R version 3.4.1 (2017-06-30) -- "Single Candle"
Copyright (C) 2017 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.

  Natural language support but running in an English locale

R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
Type 'contributors()' for more information and
'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.

Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
Type 'q()' to quit R.

> ls()               ## no variables
character(0)
> search()           ## no packages besides Base
[1] ".GlobalEnv"        "package:stats"     "package:graphics" 
[4] "package:grDevices" "package:utils"     "package:datasets" 
[7] "package:methods"   "Autoloads"         "package:base"     
>
Dirk Eddelbuettel
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    @user2163234's comment about programs running in the background combined with your suggestion led me to the answer. I restarted my computer to kill processes, then navigated to where R lives on my computer in the cmd prompt. Then I started R without startup files `R.exe --vanilla`, and tried `install.packages("my_package_here")` and it worked! Thanks @Dirk – Rich Pauloo Apr 12 '19 at 18:07
17

I had that same problem with package 'rlang', while trying to reinstall it would present me the error: "Error in install.packages : cannot remove prior installation of package ‘rlang’ "

The problem here is that the old installation is not totally gone.

When that happens just look for the location where you have your packages installed (use the command .libPaths() in R console) , then look for a directory that has a name that is not a regular name included in installed packages, that is the folder that needs to be removed.

After removing that old installation folder you are ready to reinstall the package again, it worked for me, hope it helps!

Kay
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Efrain Plaza
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10

Go to the R library that has all the packages folder and delete the particular package folder that you want to uninstall and then again try installing. Mere removing the packages with remove.package is not going to work.

Andry
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Keerthana Karthik
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8

Check your task manager for R related programs running in the background, I had files open from "microsoft.r.host.broker.exe" preventing me from accessing or deleting them. Closing it fixed the problem.

user2163234
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    Similarly, I had this problem when I was on Windows and I had forgotten that there were other processes that were running R from the command line Rscript, or similarly other RStudio processes running. All of them should be shut down. – Kim Sep 23 '18 at 20:26
5

I've met the same problem. And I tried to restart R or RStudio, it just happened again.

Then I realized when I restarted the RStudio, it loaded previous data all the time because I saved the .Rdata and .Rhistory file in my workspace (working directory).

I deleted the two files and tried again to restart and reinstall, it worked. Maybe it's helpful if you are in the same situation.

Marcus LCC
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  • Where were the .Rdata and .Rhistory files ? In your default workind directoyr ? Elsewhere ? – Julien Jul 11 '22 at 13:05
4

first clear the environment so that the packages are not loaded:-

  1. go to session in nav bar -> clear workspace.
  2. go to session in nav bar -> restart R then the update.packages() worked.
HARSHITH
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2

If you are working in RStudio:

  • First update all your installed packages using RStudio toolbar -> Tools -> Check for package updates.
  • Try installing your package again.

For me this resolved the warning 'cannot remove prior installation of package...' when trying to update (=reinstall) a previously installed R package from a GitHub repository.

V. van Hees
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1

I also had this issue, and no matter how many times I restarted R or terminated R, tried to delete the package file, or terminated R processes, I could not install the package (in my case, openxlsx).

Finally, I ended up restarting my PC, creating a new project that would serve as a "throwaway", called install.packages(), and that did the trick.

sehock
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0

I reinstalled R 4.0.1 and packages again after removing R and its libraries completely

sudo rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/R.framework /Applications/R.app \     
/usr/bin/R /usr/bin/Rscript

It worked

Singlecell
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0

On Windows 10 and R version 3.6.3

I don't know how many times I've had this problem, solved it, and forgotten how until the next time it occurs. I have been revisiting this post SO many times by now.. This time, the following solved my problem:

Delete .Rhistory and .RData as suggested by @Marcus LCC and restart the computer.

I then tried to install my package again, with the error code:

devtools::install_github("hrbrmstr/nominatim")

Error in loadNamespace(i, c(lib.loc, .libPaths()), versionCheck = vI[[i]]) : 
  there is no package called ‘rlang’

So I installed rlang (despite having it installed already), and installed my desired package again. (Note that I never deleted rlang, only .rHistory and .rData)

Worked for me, hope it helps someone! :)

chilifan
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0

change permission to all the folders in '/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.2/Resources/library'

run the install.packages

once installed restore permissions

TarJae
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Lucio
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