React Native - Error during post install hook for Podfile

Question

I am brand new to iOS React Native apps, so this may be a super simple fix, but after the version of React Native has been upgraded, the Podfile shown below is crashing with the error below.

The error is undefined method 'real_path' for nil:NilClass

Version of Cocoapods if 1.11.3 Version of Node is 14.17.3 Version of NPM is 6.14.13

Error is:-

ios % pod install
Auto-linking React Native modules for target `MYAPP`: RNCAsyncStorage, RNCCheckbox, RNCMaskedView, RNDateTimePicker, RNDeviceInfo, RNGestureHandler, RNLocalize, RNSVG, RNScreens, RNVectorIcons, react-native-config, react-native-image-picker, react-native-netinfo, react-native-safe-area-context, react-native-version-check, and rn-fetch-blob
[Codegen] Generating ./build/generated/ios/React-Codegen.podspec.json
Analyzing dependencies
Fetching podspec for `DoubleConversion` from `../node_modules/react-native/third-party-podspecs/DoubleConversion.podspec`
[Codegen] Found FBReactNativeSpec
Fetching podspec for `RCT-Folly` from `../node_modules/react-native/third-party-podspecs/RCT-Folly.podspec`
Fetching podspec for `boost` from `../node_modules/react-native/third-party-podspecs/boost.podspec`
Fetching podspec for `glog` from `../node_modules/react-native/third-party-podspecs/glog.podspec`
Downloading dependencies
… installs packages here successfully
Generating Pods project
[!] An error occurred while processing the post-install hook of the Podfile.

undefined method `real_path' for nil:NilClass

/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/xcodeproj-1.22.0/lib/xcodeproj/project/object/container_item_proxy.rb:96:in `container_portal_annotation'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/xcodeproj-1.22.0/lib/xcodeproj/project/object/container_item_proxy.rb:105:in `to_hash_as'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/xcodeproj-1.22.0/lib/xcodeproj/project/object.rb:421:in `to_ascii_plist'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/xcodeproj-1.22.0/lib/xcodeproj/project.rb:298:in `block in to_ascii_plist'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/xcodeproj-1.22.0/lib/xcodeproj/project.rb:296:in `each'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/xcodeproj-1.22.0/lib/xcodeproj/project.rb:296:in `to_ascii_plist'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/xcodeproj-1.22.0/lib/xcodeproj/project.rb:365:in `block in save'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/atomos-0.1.3/lib/atomos.rb:21:in `block in atomic_write'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/tempfile.rb:295:in `open'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/atomos-0.1.3/lib/atomos.rb:17:in `atomic_write'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/xcodeproj-1.22.0/lib/xcodeproj/project.rb:364:in `save'
/Users/MyUser/dev/MYAPPV2/node_modules/react-native/scripts/cocoapods/utils.rb:71:in `block in exclude_i386_architecture_while_using_hermes'
/Users/MyUser/dev/MYAPPV2/node_modules/react-native/scripts/cocoapods/utils.rb:66:in `each'
/Users/MyUser/dev/MYAPPV2/node_modules/react-native/scripts/cocoapods/utils.rb:66:in `exclude_i386_architecture_while_using_hermes'
/Users/MyUser/dev/MYAPPV2/node_modules/react-native/scripts/react_native_pods.rb:161:in `react_native_post_install'
/Users/MyUser/dev/MYAPPV2/ios/Podfile:17:in `block (3 levels) in from_ruby'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-core-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods-core/podfile.rb:196:in `post_install!'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:945:in `run_podfile_post_install_hook'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:933:in `block in run_podfile_post_install_hooks'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/user_interface.rb:149:in `message'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:932:in `run_podfile_post_install_hooks'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:331:in `block (2 levels) in create_and_save_projects'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/installer/xcode/pods_project_generator/pods_project_writer.rb:61:in `write!'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:330:in `block in create_and_save_projects'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/user_interface.rb:64:in `section'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:309:in     `create_and_save_projects'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:301:in `generate_pods_project'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:180:in `integrate'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:167:in `install!'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/command/install.rb:52:in `run'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/claide-1.0.3/lib/claide/command.rb:334:in `run'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/lib/cocoapods/command.rb:52:in `run'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.11.3/bin/pod:55:in `<top (required)>'
/usr/local/bin/pod:23:in `load'
/usr/local/bin/pod:23:in `<main>'

[!] `<PBXGroup name=`Libraries` UUID=`832341AE1AAA6A7D00B99B32`>` attempted to initialize an object with an unknown UUID. `65A7A9B869DB4D1CB5659E12` for attribute: `children`. This can be the result of a merge and the unknown UUID is being discarded.

[!] `<PBXProject name=`MYAPP` UUID=`83CBB9F71A601CBA00E9B192`>` attempted to initialize an object with an unknown UUID. `65A7A9B869DB4D1CB5659E12` for attribute: `project_references`. This can be the result of a merge and the unknown UUID is being discarded.

Podfile is:-

require_relative '../node_modules/react-native/scripts/react_native_pods'
require_relative '../node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-ios/native_modules'
platform :ios, '12.4'
install! 'cocoapods', :deterministic_uuids => false
target 'MyApp' do
      config = use_native_modules!
      use_react_native!(
        :path => config[:reactNativePath],
    :hermes_enabled => true,
    :fabric_enabled => flags[:fabric_enabled],
    :flipper_configuration => FlipperConfiguration.enabled,
    :app_path => "#{Pod::Config.instance.installation_root}/.."
  )
  pod 'RNSVG', :path => '../node_modules/react-native-svg'
  pod 'CocoaAsyncSocket'
  post_install do |installer|
    react_native_post_install(installer, :mac_catalyst_enabled => false)
        __apply_Xcode_12_5_M1_post_install_workaround(installer)
          installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
          target.build_configurations.each do |config|
          config.build_settings["ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH"] = "NO"
          end
      end
  end
end

Answer 1

Not sure if this helps, but I ran into a couple of similar issues and finally installed cocoapods 1.11.3 via homebrew (brew install cocoapods) on macOS 13.0.1. Cocoapods recommends to use the default macOS ruby but this wasn't very stable for me.