Why does npm install say I have unmet dependencies?

I have a node package. When I run npm install from the package root, it installs a bunch of things, but then prints several error messages that look like this:

npm WARN unmet dependency /Users/seanmackesey/google_drive/code/explore/generator/node_modules/findup-sync/node_modules/glob requires graceful-fs@'~1.2.0' but will load

I must be confused about what exactly npm install does. If it detects a dependency, shouldn't it install it? Under what conditions does it give me error messages like this, and how can I resolve the dependencies?


I believe it is because the dependency resolution is a bit broken, see https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/1341#issuecomment-20634338

Following are the possible solution :

  1. Manually need to install the top-level modules, containing unmet dependencies: npm install [email protected]

  2. Re-structure your package.json. Place all the high-level modules (serves as a dependency for others modules) at the bottom.

  3. Re-run the npm install command.

The problem could be caused by npm's failure to download all the package due to timed-out or something else.

Note: You can also install the failed packages manually as well using npm install [email protected].

Before running npm install, performing the following steps may help:

  • remove node_modules using rm -rf node_modules/
  • run npm cache clean

Why 'removing node_modules' sometimes is necessary? When a nested module fails to install during npm install, subsequent npm install won't detect those missing nested dependencies.

If that's the case, sometimes it's sufficient to remove the top-level dependency of those missing nested modules, and running npm install again. See


It happened to me when the WIFI went down during an npm install. Removing node_modules and re-running npm install fixed it.


I fixed the issue by using these command lines

  • $ rm -rf node_modules/
  • $ sudo npm update -g npm
  • $ npm install

It's done!


Upgrading NPM to the latest version can greatly help with this. dule's answer above is right to say that dependency management is a bit broken, but it seems that this is mainly for older versions of npm.

The command npm list gives you a list of all installed node_modules. When I upgraded from version 1.4.2 to version 2.7.4, many modules that were previously flagged with WARN unmet dependency were no longer noted as such.

To update npm, you should type npm install -g npm on MacOSX or Linux. On Windows, I found that re-downloading and re-running the nodejs installer was a more effective way to update npm.


The above answers didn't help me fully even after deleteting node_modules directory.

Below command helped me finally:

npm config set registry http://registry.npmjs.org/

Note that this pulls node modules over an insecure HTTP connection.

Src: https://stackoverflow.com/a/13119867/4082503