npm install gives unauthorized name or password is incorrect error

Question

When I try to install tap using

npm install tap

I get the following error:

npm ERR! Error: unauthorized Name or password is incorrect.: tap

Here's the entire response:

npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/tap
npm http 401 https://registry.npmjs.org/tap
npm ERR! Error: unauthorized Name or password is incorrect.: tap
npm ERR!     at RegClient.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npm-registry-client/lib/request.js:253:14)
npm ERR!     at Request.init.self.callback (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/request/main.js:120:22)
npm ERR!     at Request.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:91:17)
npm ERR!     at Request.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/request/main.js:648:16)
npm ERR!     at Request.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:115:20)
npm ERR!     at IncomingMessage.Request.start.self.req.self.httpModule.request.buffer (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/request/main.js:610:14)
npm ERR!     at IncomingMessage.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:115:20)
npm ERR!     at IncomingMessage._emitEnd (http.js:366:10)
npm ERR!     at HTTPParser.parserOnMessageComplete [as onMessageComplete] (http.js:149:23)
npm ERR!     at CleartextStream.socketOnData (http.js:1366:20)
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this log at:
npm ERR!     <http://github.com/isaacs/npm/issues>
npm ERR! or email it to:
npm ERR!     <npm-@googlegroups.com>

npm ERR! System Linux 3.2.0-31-generic-pae
npm ERR! command "/usr/local/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "tap"
npm ERR! cwd /home/thaddeus
npm ERR! node -v v0.8.8
npm ERR! npm -v 1.1.59
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/thaddeus/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

Answer 1

Found the answer.

Remove .npmrc from my home directory and it works!

Thanks to mcollina https://github.com/mcollina at https://github.com/isaacs/npm/issues/2778

Answer 2

 1.>Go to your this location

    C:\Users\{your user name or ID}

 2.> open .npmrc & Remove all content from .npmrc file.

 3.>reopen your new command prompt

 4.>again run the code , will work.

Answer 3

I was also having this problem. Mine has arised because I have changed my password in npmjs.org. So, try Login in npm from terminal again with your new password and then install any module. It worked for me.

Answer 4

You might have _auth entry configured in the .npmrc config file ($HOME/.npmrc). Just delete the entry if you are using the public registry as it's not needed. If you're using a private npm registry you should check with your admin that that's the correct auth key for you to access the registry.

I would not recommend just deleting the whole file (.npmrc) as the file might contain important configurations for your npm to work correctly. i.e.: proxy config.

Answer 5

Also you can use

npm cache clean

Answer 6

Removing package-lock.json and node_modules did the trick in my case.

Answer 7

i tried

npm cache clean

but it didn't work. I didn't see .npmrc in my directory. I killed my bash shell (terminal on mac) and brought up a new one and that seemed to do the trick. Not sure if it was the bash refresh or the npm cache clean or a combination of the two.

Answer 8

npm cache verify is what you need