Cannot run program "npx": error=2, No such file or directory when running React Native app

Question

I have been working with react-native project in another pc and it has been working correctly. Now I cloned project to another device where I have react-native installed since I work with other project and I cannot run it.

When I run react-native run-android I get this error:

Cannot run program "npx": error=2, No such file or directory

If you use Ubuntu or Mac OS, please run Android Studio with below command on Terminal. ` $ open -a "Android Studio.app" ` After that, build your react-native android app on the Android Studio. — NinjaDev, Aug 06 '20 at 01:45

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 06 '20 at 01:38

9

I'm using Android Studio 4 on Mac OS Catalina 10.15.6. I solved the problem by running Android Studio with bellow command on console.

$ open -a "Android Studio.app"

answered Aug 06 '20 at 01:38

NinjaDev

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It would be great to know why this helps, but it helps all the same. Thank you – LethalMaus Dec 15 '21 at 10:50
since I am pretty sure you have your .env variables in your terminal profile that is pointing to android – Cyrus Zei Jan 26 '22 at 18:02
open -a /Applications/Android\ Studio.app – Gurjinder Singh Apr 28 '22 at 17:24

Edison Biba · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-28T13:47:28.717

Simple steps you need to go through to make it work with npx

sudo npm uninstall -g react-native-cli
sudo npm i -g npx
npx react-native run-android

More detailed explanation why this is happenig

Issue was that Facebook is not using anymore react-native-cli as they are using npx.

As stated in Facebook page:

If you previously installed a global react-native-cli package, please remove it as it may cause unexpected issues.

So i had to run sudo npm uninstall -g react-native-cli to remove react-native-cli

They also say that npx is shipped with nodejs but that wasn't my case.

React Native has a built-in command line interface, which you can use to generate a new project. You can access it without installing anything globally using npx, which ships with Node.js.

So I had to install it using sudo npm i -g npx

After installing npx then just need to run npx react-native run-android.

Be aware of npx before react-native run-android

Now you don't have any command react-native now we only have 'npx' and react-native run-android is just a parameter for npx. For ex. to start metro we should run npx react-native start

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 26 '20 at 10:15

I had the same issues, so I followed these steps:

Start by installing the latest version of Android Studio (Don't delete the old version, just copy paste that to another directory or in my case I just added the Android Studio 3.2.1 that I had to a folder called olderAndroidStudio, on mac).
Make sure you don't click on import settings from Existing.
Follow along the installation, and complete it.
Build and Run, app runs without any problems.

I additionally uninstalled react-native-cli using the method given in the accepted answer.

Actually, this worked for me, I just update my android studio and then restart android studio!!! — Joseph Ali, Apr 01 '22 at 14:49

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 26 '21 at 01:05

0

In my case, I just quit Android Studio and reopened, and the error was gone.

Maybe throw in a ./gradlew clean for goo measure.

answered May 26 '21 at 01:05

James Trickey

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score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 10 '22 at 08:31

I solved it by finding the command that was throwing error and ran it directly

node -e "console.log(require('react-native/cli').bin)"

which outputs a path, something like

$HOME/my-app/node_modules/@react-native-community/cli/build/bin.js

then I pasted that path in android/app/build.gradle

project.ext.react = [
    entryFile: "index.js",
    enableHermes: true,  // clean and rebuild if changing
    cliPath: "$HOME/my-app/node_modules/@react-native-community/cli/build/bin.js" // <--- add this
]

Cannot run program "npx": error=2, No such file or directory when running React Native app

5 Answers5