node_modules appears empty, you may need to run 'npm install'

Hi Guys,


You might face the error node_modules appears empty, you may need to run 'npm install'  if you try to test an angular 2/4/5 application . 

node_modules appears empty, you may need to run 'npm install'

This error occurs when you use the command ng serve.

C:\projects\my-app> ng serve

Note that this command is used to start a server , serving the angular application .

The most common cause of this error is missing node_modules folder in the directory from which you have called ng serve.

To solve this take the following steps.

1. Check , if you have called ng serve from the correct location ? to serve the application you need to navigate to the project folder and then call ng serve .

2. If you are in correct folder , check if you have a folder named node_modules in it.If not your project is incomplete . Create a new application using ng new and replace the src folder of new app with src folder of your existing app.

C:\projects> ng new my-app-new

Copy the src folder in my-app to my-app-new

C:\projects> cd my-app-new
C:\projects\my-app-new> ng serve

3. If you have node_modules  folder available and in your app folder then it might be corrupted. To solve this create a new application using ng new and replace the src folder of new app with src folder of your existing app.


Important links
S O