[FIXED] What causes the npm error {errno: -4094, code: 'UNKNOWN', syscall: 'readlink'}?

Issue

I have been happily building a next.js app over the last couple days without error. Today I installed the firebase npm and suddenly I am getting a strange error when I try to run "npm run dev?

ready - started server on 0.0.0.0:3002, url: http://localhost:3002
[Error: UNKNOWN: unknown error, readlink 'C:\...\seo-site\.next\server\pages\_document.js'] {
  errno: -4094,
  code: 'UNKNOWN',
  syscall: 'readlink',
  path: 'C:\\...\\seo-site\\.next\\server\\pages\\_document.js'
}

Even if I uninstall firebase and roll the entire project back to a working build I still get the same error. If I try to run this "broken" build on another computer with the same version of node and npm it runs completely fine. I've tried running npm cache clean --force and npm install -g npm@latest --force several times without any luck.

I have noticed that as I change things I get the error with a different path. Sometimes it's \webpack-runtime.js sometimes its \errors.js and somethimes it's \pages\_document.js'

I cant find anything online or on stack overflow for an error matching this errno or syscall. Has anyone experienced this before or know what is causing this?

Solution

deleting the .next file and running npm run dev fixed the issue. I am not sure why this worked but I think it has something to do with next.js trying to use parts of a previous build when you make updates that are causing errors. deleting folder forces next to rebuild everything again.

Answered By - Ming the merciless

Answer Checked By - Mildred Charles (PHPFixing Admin)