Unable to run any flutter commands 'The flutter tool cannot access the file or directory'

Question

Whenever I run a flutter command including:

• flutter doctor
• flutter clean
• flutter channel [any channel]
• etc

I get the following error:

Gregorys-MacBook-Pro:~ gregory$ flutter doctor
Unhandled exception:
Exception: Flutter failed to create a directory at "/Users/gregory/.config/flutter". The flutter tool cannot access the file or directory.
Please ensure that the SDK and/or project is installed in a location that has read/write permissions for the current user.
#0      throwToolExit (package:flutter_tools/src/base/common.dart:10:3)
#1      _throwFileSystemException (package:flutter_tools/src/base/error_handling_io.dart:749:3)
#2      _handlePosixException (package:flutter_tools/src/base/error_handling_io.dart:697:3)
#3      _runSync (package:flutter_tools/src/base/error_handling_io.dart:561:7)
#4      ErrorHandlingDirectory.createSync (package:flutter_tools/src/base/error_handling_io.dart:408:12)
#5      new Config (package:flutter_tools/src/base/config.dart:33:17)
#6      runInContext.<anonymous closure> (package:flutter_tools/src/context_runner.dart:146:21)
#7      AppContext._generateIfNecessary.<anonymous closure> (package:flutter_tools/src/base/context.dart:104:41)
#8      _LinkedHashMapMixin.putIfAbsent (dart:collection-patch/compact_hash.dart:311:23)
#9      AppContext._generateIfNecessary (package:flutter_tools/src/base/context.dart:92:20)
#10     AppContext.get (package:flutter_tools/src/base/context.dart:121:32)
#11     config (package:flutter_tools/src/globals.dart:47:30)
#12     getBuildDirectory (package:flutter_tools/src/build_info.dart:673:48)
#13     defaultDepfilePath (package:flutter_tools/src/bundle.dart:29:55)
#14     new BuildBundleCommand (package:flutter_tools/src/commands/build_bundle.dart:24:42)
#15     new BuildCommand (package:flutter_tools/src/commands/build.dart:33:19)
#16     main.<anonymous closure> (package:flutter_tools/executable.dart:102:5)
#17     run.<anonymous closure> (package:flutter_tools/runner.dart:50:13)
<asynchronous suspension>
#18     AppContext.run.<anonymous closure> (package:flutter_tools/src/base/context.dart:150:19)
<asynchronous suspension>
#19     AppContext.run (package:flutter_tools/src/base/context.dart:149:12)
<asynchronous suspension>
#20     runInContext (package:flutter_tools/src/context_runner.dart:73:10)
<asynchronous suspension>
#21     main (package:flutter_tools/executable.dart:90:3)
<asynchronous suspension>

Just before I started getting this error I did the following:

• Deleted Library/developer/coresimulator/caches folder
• Changed flutter channel to beta

I was trying to get disk space for an xcode update.

Solution 1

My problem was importing a project from Windows. I compared the imported folder with one that was created on MacOS and the difference was that appeared extended attribute. So my solution was to remove the extended attributes via command line:

$ sudo xattr -c -r  <project_folder> 

Solution 2

I also faced same issue when i migrate flutter version to 2.0. Only the solution was grant permission to the user for that location.

you may simply run this command :

$ sudo chown -R <username> /Users/<username>/.config

should be replaced with your user name.

Solution 3

go to flutter sdk folder then,inside bin folder open this path in terminal.now run a command "git stash"

now perform your command "flutter channel beta"

Comments

[MrHarvey]

Here is my git status in flutter folder: Gregorys-MacBook-Pro:flutter gregory$ git status warning: unable to access '/Users/gregory/.config/git/attributes': Permission denied On branch beta Your branch is up to date with 'origin/beta'. nothing to commit, working tree clean

[MrHarvey]

I seem to get the same problem Gregorys-MacBook-Pro:bin gregory$ git stash warning: unable to access '/Users/gregory/.config/git/attributes': Permission denied

[MrHarvey]

Yes I am sure, it has not changed location since I installed it and I have never seen this error before. The actual location of my flutter folder is /Users/gregory/Dev/flutter so I'm not sure why it is saying .config/flutter

[Zeeshan Mehdi]

this resolved my issue.