npm start error caused by webpack version - node.js

Question

I am having a problem when executing the command npm start on recently react apps. I don't have much experience with node.js and didn't find the exact problem on the internet so decided to ask here.
Two days ago I started having a problem that npm start didn't work in any react app I created, this morning I even created a new one with npx create-react-app test, opened the project folder in VSCode and immediately executed npm start but got the same problem so I don't think it is something I messed up in the other apps.
The error I get is this
> sci-cal#0.1.0 start C:\Users\virgi\OneDrive\Documentos\VS_VSC\typescript_vsc\test
> react-scripts start
There might be a problem with the project dependency tree.
It is likely not a bug in Create React App, but something you need to fix locally.
The react-scripts package provided by Create React App requires a dependency:
"webpack": "4.44.2"
Don't try to install it manually: your package manager does it automatically.
However, a different version of webpack was detected higher up in the tree:
C:\Users\virgi\node_modules\webpack (version: 5.52.1)
Manually installing incompatible versions is known to cause hard-to-debug issues.
If you would prefer to ignore this check, add SKIP_PREFLIGHT_CHECK=true to an .env file in your project.
That will permanently disable this message but you might encounter other issues.
To fix the dependency tree, try following the steps below in the exact order:
1. Delete package-lock.json (not package.json!) and/or yarn.lock in your project folder.
2. Delete node_modules in your project folder.
3. Remove "webpack" from dependencies and/or devDependencies in the package.json file in your project folder.
4. Run npm install or yarn, depending on the package manager you use.
In most cases, this should be enough to fix the problem.
If this has not helped, there are a few other things you can try:
5. If you used npm, install yarn (http://yarnpkg.com/) and repeat the above steps with it instead.
This may help because npm has known issues with package hoisting which may get resolved in future versions.
6. Check if C:\Users\virgi\node_modules\webpack is outside your project directory.
For example, you might have accidentally installed something in your home folder.
7. Try running npm ls webpack in your project folder.
This will tell you which other package (apart from the expected react-scripts) installed webpack.
If nothing else helps, add SKIP_PREFLIGHT_CHECK=true to an .env file in your project.
That would permanently disable this preflight check in case you want to proceed anyway.
P.S. We know this message is long but please read the steps above :-) We hope you find them helpful!
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! sci-cal#0.1.0 start: `react-scripts start`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the sci-cal#0.1.0 start script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! C:\Users\virgi\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache\_logs\2021-09-16T11_48_33_404Z-debug.log
I already tried the first four steps but it didn't fix the issue and webpack is in the node_modules project folder.
I think that it may be an issue of the react version I am using not being updated and thus not recognizing webpack version 5.52.1 but as previously said, I don't have much experience with react and didn't find the exact same problem fix on the internet so I decided to ask here before doing anything else to prevent the problem from possibly getting worse.

Answer 1

Since you already tried the first 4 steps, you can try to browse to C:\Users\virgi and check if you have the node_modules folder here. Delete it and run npm start in your project again