Unable to run react-native tutorial due to TransformError with .babelrc

Question

I am unable to get react-native run-ios to work on the basic Hello World application that Facebook ships here.

The error that appears every single time is:

TransformError: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open <path>/.babelrc

When I open .babelrc, all it says is:

{
"presets": ["react-native"]
}

Googling this error shows the following pages:

• https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues/7906 (I tried ./node_modules/react-native/packager/packager.sh start --reset-cache, no effect)

• https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues/7666 (I do not understand the cause and resolution of this error per this thread)

• https://github.com/erikras/react-redux-universal-hot-example/issues/1266 (This does not seem to be related to my issue)

• https://github.com/goatslacker/alt/issues/558 (I attempted to remove .babelrc but it had no effect)

My version is:

$ react-native --version react-native-cli: 2.0.1 react-native: 0.42.3

I am running OSX 10.12.2, XC 8.3

Can anyone explain the cause, and propose a resolution? Thanks!

Answer 1

I had a packager running in another window from an old project that I needed to kill. Once I did that, it started working again.