Expo project not starting - node.js

Question

My expo project doesn't start when I try to use npm start.
Versions that I am using are
Expo-cli: 3.20.5
Node : 12.16.3
Flow:
expo init project
-> blank template
expo start
After running the expo start command it gives the following error
Cannot determine which native SDK version your project uses because the module `expo` is not installed. Please install it with `yarn add expo` and try again.
ConfigError: Cannot determine which native SDK version your project uses because the module `expo` is not installed. Please install it with `yarn add expo` and try again.
at Object.getExpoSDKVersion (C:\Users\Talha\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\expo-cli\node_modules\#expo\config\src\Project.ts:35:9)
at ensureConfigHasDefaultValues (C:\Users\Talha\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\expo-cli\node_modules\#expo\config\src\Config.ts:419:22)
at fillAndReturnConfig (C:\Users\Talha\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\expo-cli\node_modules\#expo\config\src\Config.ts:101:10)
at configureProjectAsync (C:\Users\Talha\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\expo-cli\src\commands\start.ts:281:25)
at action (C:\Users\Talha\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\expo-cli\src\commands\start.ts:157:34)
at C:\Users\Talha\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\expo-cli\src\commands\start.ts:334:16
at Command.<anonymous> (C:\Users\Talha\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\expo-cli\src\exp.ts:85:7)
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! # start: `expo start`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the # start script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
npm WARN Local package.json exists, but node_modules missing, did you mean to install?
Then as mentioned in the above first line I ran npm install expo
After running the command for installing expo it gives me the following error
Error: React Native is not installed. Please run `npm install` in your project directory.
Couldn't start project. Please fix the errors and restart the project.
at startExpoServerAsync (C:\#expo\xdl#57.9.5\src\Project.ts:2080:11)
at Object.startAsync (C:\#expo\xdl#57.9.5\src\Project.ts:2397:5)
at action (C:\Users\Talha\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\expo-cli\src\commands\start.ts:170:3)
at C:\Users\Talha\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\expo-cli\src\commands\start.ts:341:16
at Command.<anonymous> (C:\Users\Talha\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\expo-cli\src\exp.ts:85:7)
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! # start: `expo start`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR! Failed at the # start script.
Then I ran npm install mentioned in the above error but then got this error
npm WARN deprecated deep-assign#3.0.0: Check out `lodash.merge` or `merge-options` instead.
npm WARN deprecated core-js#1.2.7: core-js#<3 is no longer maintained and not recommended for usage due to the number of issues. Please, upgrade your dependencies to the actual version of core-js#3.
npm ERR! code Z_BUF_ERROR
npm ERR! errno -5
npm ERR! zlib: unexpected end of file
after that when i again try to npm start it keeps repeating itself through the same errors I mentioned above

Answer 1

the problem is that npm install is not working on your machine, possibly due to some cache issues. you can run npm cache clean --force and then npm install again to try to resolve the issue

Answer 2

Illustration I had the same issue and cleaned up my node module. But the issue came back because I kill my server the wrong way. So I cleaned the repo again and close my server properly. And now I all the time close correctly my server. The issue didn't happen again for the moment.
=> Don't kill your cmd, you have to close the server correctly by doing CMD+C for win 10.