How to downgrade Node version

Question

I want to downgrade my Node version from the latest to v6.10.3.

But nothing worked so far. Tried NVM and it gives an error as well by saying make command is not found. How can I downgrade Node?

Solution 1

Warning: This answer does not support Windows OS

You can use n for node's version management. There is a simple intro for n.

$ npm install -g n
$ n 6.10.3

this is very easy to use.

then you can show your node version:

$ node -v
v6.10.3

---

For windows nvm is a well-received tool.

Solution 2

For windows:

Steps

1. Go to Control panel> program and features>Node.js then uninstall

2. Go to website: https://nodejs.org/en/ and download the version and install.

Solution 3

Determining your Node version

node -v  // or node --version
npm -v   // npm version or long npm --version

Ensure that you have n installed

sudo npm install -g n // -g for global installation 

Upgrading to the latest stable version

sudo n stable

Changing to a specific version

sudo n 10.16.0

Answer inspired by this article.

Solution 4

In Mac there is a fast method with brew:

brew search node

You see some version, for example: [email protected] [email protected] ... Then

brew unlink node

And now select a before version for example [email protected]

brew link --overwrite --force [email protected]

Ready, you have downgraded you node version.

Solution 5

This may be due to version incompatibility between your code and the version you have installed.

In my case I was using v8.12.0 for development (locally) and installed latest version v13.7.0 on the server.

So using nvm I switched the node version to v8.12.0 with the below command:

> nvm install 8.12.0 // to install the version I wanted
> nvm use 8.12.0  // use the installed version

NOTE: You need to install nvm on your system to use nvm.

You should try this solution before trying solutions like installing build-essentials or uninstalling the current node version because you could switch between versions easily than reverting all the installations/uninstallations that you've done.

View more solutions

Comments

[Raphael]

it looks like your package has been installed, but not added to the PATH. add path to your package and all will work fine

[Abhinav Saxena]

github.com/facebook/create-react-app/issues/11562 has the details, why to downgrade NodeJs to v16.13.0

[Thorbjørn Kappel Hansen]

n does not support Windows

[vijay]

Work great on Mac

[Rabel Obispo]

In this article recommend to clean the npm cache first, but it works fine as above for me on mac. Command sudo npm cache clean -f

[Aleksandar]

Here is the official link with all node versions ever nodejs.org/dist You can use CTRL+F (CMD+F on Mac) to find exactly the version You need. Download the .pkg file if You are using a Mac and You are ready to go! :)

[inquisitive]

didn't work for me in mac - says The operation was rejected by your operating system. Had to use brew install n

[Ian Samz]

this was so fast

[Pankaj Bhandarkar]

tried the same way, it does download but not installed, showing the older version on centos

[Morten Nørgaard]

For those looking for an older version, these are found here, nodejs.org/dist

[Arsen Khachaturyan]

For Windows use this: github.com/coreybutler/nvm-windows to setup nvm and control Node version via it.

[Ryan]

If you get a permission error, this is helpful: github.com/tj/n/issues/416#issuecomment-417808320

[ofer2980]

But how do I select a specific version? it’s not clear, there are 2 lines on your first suggestion

[Davide C]

@ofer2980, to make it work finally I did sudo n lts to demote to the last LTS and it fixed my issue. In general n <version> does the job

[Roman Nikitchenko]

Worked for me perfectly - also the advantage is - you then have proper updates through brew but only for the selected release. You could have issues during the 'link' stage if you have leftovers from previous installations but you will be pointed where so it is easy to clean.

[Vinay Somawat]

Worked on Ubuntu! Thanks for this.

[Anton Lukin]

brew link [email protected] --force --overwrite solved the problem

[Alan Yong]

this is not helpful at all. the question is how to downgrade, not switch version

[Kishan Chaitanya]

too simple and fast ;)

[adarian]

Hands down the best way of changing your version especially on a mac.

[Mahdiyeh]

After this I had to close the terminal and restart the Mac. Thank you, it was very helpful.

[majordomo]

Don't need to restart - just exit and open a new terminal session.

[Barney Szabolcs]

I've gotten Error: No such keg: /usr/local/Cellar/[email protected]

[Grant Singleton]

How do you change the active version? I installed it fine but cant change the active version

[Ian Steffy]

@GrantSingleton Same. This solution for Mac will install the version you specify but it will not automatically make it the active version. OP should update the answer

[Grant Singleton]

@IanS I ended up just using brew to uninstall the version I had and install the version I needed. I would have loved for n to be able to switch the active version.

[Ian Steffy]

@GrantSingleton I actually did the same thing yesterday. I brew uninstall node then used brew to install the new version, unlink the old version, link the new one, etc. I agree, but this has made me consider using brew much more. 'n use' would not switch to the new version of node even though n could download it. Perhaps the n and brew conflict in certain areas.

[Tobias]

If you want to stick always to the Node LTS version (which might be the reason for the desired downgrade), then use the Chocolatey nodejs-lts package instead. This offers the advantage to keep up-to-date with the latest supported LTS version.

[Fanchen Bao]

The error means [email protected] has been installed yet. brew install [email protected] and then do run the link command.

[Shani Kehati]

notice: this installs nvm - a service that lets you have multiple node versions installed on you computer, and to set a node version for each project/folder

[Penguin Knees]

n didn't work for me either, but nvm use <version> did - e.g. stackoverflow.com/a/45632540/13488316

[Baris C]

sudo n stable work for me thanks

[pacoverflow]

sudo: n: command not found

[Khaled Lela]

You need to download n first, using command mentioned within the answer: sudo npm install -g n // -g for global installation

[Oliver Dixon]

nvm is much better, n causes so many issues.

[Tomachi]

n is amazing. I could never get nvm to work. n works

[Abhinav Saxena]

github.com/facebook/create-react-app/issues/11562 has the details, why to downgrade NodeJs to v16.13.0

[Sham Gir]

in case of sudo: n: command not found use this sudo -E env "PATH=$PATH" n e.g: sudo -E env "PATH=$PATH" n stable askubuntu.com/questions/608661/…

[MoDzeus]

This is absolute gold.