Unable to update R packages in default library on Windows 7

Question

I\'m trying to update packages on RGui (64-bit) using update.packages but I\'m getting the following message:

Warning in install.packages(update         


        

Answer 1

I had a similar error recently. Running RStudio as an administrator didn't work. And changing the permissions on C:/Programs/R is a bit clumsy, as you'd have to repeat it for every user.

The solution for me was changing the library path for R as follows

1. In the R console, type .libPaths(). You'll see something like this,

   "Path/to/user/R/win-library/x.x" "C:/Programs/R/R-x.x.x"

   The two paths exist because you have defined a user-specific lib path during installation. Replace x.x.x with your R version.

2. Now set the lib path to the Programs directory

   .libPaths = "C:/Programs/R/R-x.x.x"

Now you can install.packages() or update.packages()!