Cypress failed to start on MacOS - e2e-testing

Question

When I try to use cypress open or cypress run, I get the following error:
✖ Verifying Cypress can run /*/*/.cache/Cypress/3.1.5/Cypress
→ Cypress Version: 3.1.5
Cypress failed to start.
This is usually caused by a missing library or dependency.
The error below should indicate which dependency is missing.
https://on.cypress.io/required-dependencies
If you are using Docker, we provide containers with all required dependencies installed.
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Command failed: /*/*/.cache/Cypress/3.1.5/Cypress/Cypress --smoke-test --ping=984
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Platform: darwin (17.6.0)
Cypress Version: 3.1.5
There are no dependencies listed in the error, and I'm not using docker. What should I try?

Answer 1

Simply try ./node_modules/.bin/cypress install if you're using Cypress for the first time.

Answer 2

One thing that worked for me was unsetting the NODE_OPTIONS environment variable:
on MacOS
unset NODE_OPTIONS
cypress open
on Windows
set NODE_OPTIONS=
cypress open
if that fails, try the following as suggested by a user on Github:
on MacOS:
clear /Users/[username]/Library/Caches/Cypress
run npm i cypress -g
run cypress open
close terminal
return back to your node.js project and run the tests
on Windows:
clear C:\Users[username]\AppData\Local\Cypress\Cache)
start a command prompt as administrator
run npm i cypress -g
run cypress open
close command prompt
return back to your node.js project and run the tests