Watchman crawl failed. After MacOS Catalina Update

[t-castanho]

After the MacOS update and zsh terminal change i can't run my app with npm start even with a watchman blank file. I'm getting this error:

jest-haste-map:` Watchman crawl failed. Retrying once with node crawler.
  Usually this happens when watchman isn't running. Create an empty `.watchmanconfig` file 
in your project's root folder or initialize a git or hg repository in your project.
  Error: Watchman error: resolve_projpath: path `(mypath)`: open: (mypath): Operation 
not permitted. Make sure watchman is running for this project. 
See https://facebook.github.io/watchman/docs/troubleshooting.html.

Should i downgrade? Or there is any fix for this?

[rocketaero]

I had the same problem. I moved the entire project directory outside of the Documents directory and it solved the problem. Appears to be something related to the new permissions catalina requires for access to the Documents directory.

[t-castanho]

Where do you paste your project? I’ve my project in the desktop directory. Can we remove the permissions?

[rocketaero]

I think the Desktop has similar problems as Documents, I moved mine to my root user directory
( /Users/{myuser} ) and it worked.

[wez]

See also: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58318341/why-watchman-crawl-failed-error-in-react-native-immediately-after-updating-to

[nickwelp]

To change the permissions for Watchman regarding the Documents folder, it's under Security & Privacy -> files & folders in the system preferences

[peachsky1]

Guys. I spent hours to figure this out. I found a solution.
If you still face this problem after you re-install node, watchman and expo cli etc, You gotta try this simple step. Trust me. Its all bcuz of catalina grant access to folders permission.

First, Kill all the server running and close your terminal.
Go to 'System preference' -> 'Security & Privacy' -> scroll down and click 'Full Disk Access' -> Make sure you checked on 'Terminal' and 'Watchman'. Save and restart ur laptop.

You are welcome.

[SaravanakumarSubramanian]

@jaeseonglee1008 Worked for me!! kudos man!!

[IgorUsoltsev]

I think the Desktop has similar problems as Documents, I moved mine to my root user directory
( /Users/{myuser} ) and it worked.

this one solved it for me.

Tried all the stuff from "Full disk access" to reinstall, chmod etc. But moving project under {user} folder solved all the issues. Damn Catalina's new security rules. Spent few days on that.

[webhaoying]

To change the permissions for Watchman regarding the Documents folder, it's under Security & Privacy -> files & folders in the system preferences

thanks ,fixed

[grangerjs]

Guys. I spent hours to figure this out. I found a solution.
If you still face this problem after you re-install node, watchman and expo cli etc, You gotta try this simple step. Trust me. Its all bcuz of catalina grant access to folders permission.

First, Kill all the server running and close your terminal.
Go to 'System preference' -> 'Security & Privacy' -> scroll down and click 'Full Disk Access' -> Make sure you checked on 'Terminal' and 'Watchman'. Save and restart ur laptop.

You are welcome.

This was it. THANK YOU.

[lalidiaz]

To change the permissions for Watchman regarding the Documents folder, it's under Security & Privacy -> files & folders in the system preferences

Thank you so much :)

[rplotkin]

Guys. I spent hours to figure this out. I found a solution.
If you still face this problem after you re-install node, watchman and expo cli etc, You gotta try this simple step. Trust me. Its all bcuz of catalina grant access to folders permission.

First, Kill all the server running and close your terminal.
Go to 'System preference' -> 'Security & Privacy' -> scroll down and click 'Full Disk Access' -> Make sure you checked on 'Terminal' and 'Watchman'. Save and restart ur laptop.

You are welcome.

This was it. Thank you!

[ismailkhan4]

How to change fix the issue in Ubuntu? :(

[nikhilthakur001]

I think the Desktop has similar problems as Documents, I moved mine to my root user directory
( /Users/{myuser} ) and it worked.

this one solved it for me.

Tried all the stuff from "Full disk access" to reinstall, chmod etc. But moving project under {user} folder solved all the issues. Damn Catalina's new security rules. Spent few days on that.

Same, this only solved my problem, but there must be a better solution. I manage all my projects in Documents/projects. It would not be possible to move all my react-native projects to /User/{myuser}.

[DavidPhilip]

@nikhilthakur001 What actually solved this for me was that I needed to run watchman shutdown-server after doing all of the above. When I fired it up again I got the OS's disk-access permission dialog which I confirmed and everything started to work as expected.

[nikhilthakur001]

@nikhilthakur001 What actually solved this for me was that I needed to run watchman shutdown-server after doing all of the above. When I fired it up again I got the OS's disk-access permission dialog which I confirmed and everything started to work as expected.

Okay, I will try this and revert you back soon.

[Dinesh456]

I had the same issue and this is worked for me.

[ourmaninamsterdam]

Only way I could resolve this was to move my project out of ~/Documents and into ~/

[himanshuzeptonow]

I think the Desktop has similar problems as Documents, I moved mine to my root user directory ( /Users/{myuser} ) and it worked.

Worked for me as well

[shubhamRai12]

I think the Desktop has similar problems as Documents, I moved mine to my root user directory
( /Users/{myuser} ) and it worked.

this one solved it for me.
Tried all the stuff from "Full disk access" to reinstall, chmod etc. But moving project under {user} folder solved all the issues. Damn Catalina's new security rules. Spent few days on that.

Same, this only solved my problem, but there must be a better solution. I manage all my projects in Documents/projects. It would not be possible to move all my react-native projects to /User/{myuser}.

Worked for me also. Thanks.

[ui-code]

I'm using Mac with Apple M1 chip.
As of today, 25th Nov 2022, none of the above worked for me, until I came across this post:

https://www.spinellis.gr/blog/20211127/

According to which, we need to add path of homebrew within project's build phases, so that watchman is picked up while xcode archives the project:
export PATH="$PATH:/opt/homebrew/bin"

[shahzeb8285]

Guys. I spent hours to figure this out. I found a solution. If you still face this problem after you re-install node, watchman and expo cli etc, You gotta try this simple step. Trust me. Its all bcuz of catalina grant access to folders permission.

First, Kill all the server running and close your terminal. Go to 'System preference' -> 'Security & Privacy' -> scroll down and click 'Full Disk Access' -> Make sure you checked on 'Terminal' and 'Watchman'. Save and restart ur laptop.

You are welcome.

worked for me