Angular `ng update @angular/...` returns `401 Unauthorized`

Question

npm -v returns 6.0.0

node -v returns v10.0.0

Angular CLI local and global version is 6.0.0

I create a new package with ng new sample, run npm install without issue, and then I try ng update @angular/core or ng update @angular/cli and get 401 Unauthorized in response.

Trying to run update on an already Angular 6 repository does seem redundant but I also have this issue with an Angular 5 repository.

I don't have a lot to go on from this error, is it something to do specifically with ng update or more likely to be some unrelated configuration outside of it?

Answer 1

I was struggling with the same error message. For me it was caused by a custom .npmrc in the project directory which contained information about howto connect to our npm registry.

Here's how I resolved it:

1. removed the file during the update (mv .npmrc backup.npmrc)
2. removed all dependencies to artifacts from our internal npm registry from the package.json
3. ran ng update @angular/cli
4. moved file back to old position mv backup.npmrc .npmrc
5. ran npm install (just to make sure)

I also created an angular-cli issue at https://github.com/angular/angular-cli/issues/10704