vitest-dev/vitest · error · Error

Snapshot file "${id}" does not exist.

Error message

Snapshot file "${id}" does not exist.

What it means

`removeSnapshotFile` runs `existsSync(id)` before `fs.unlink`. If the snapshot was never created, already deleted, or removed by another concurrent process, the unlink would throw `ENOENT`; Vitest surfaces a clearer message naming the missing file.

Source

Thrown at packages/browser/src/node/rpc.ts:299

          if (!canWrite(project)) {
            vitest.logger.error(
              `[vitest] Cannot save snapshot file "${id}". File writing is disabled because server is exposed to the internet, see https://vitest.dev/config/api.`,
            )
            return
          }
          await fs.mkdir(dirname(id), { recursive: true })
          await fs.writeFile(id, content, 'utf-8')
        },
        async removeSnapshotFile(id) {
          checkFileAccess(id)
          if (!canWrite(project)) {
            vitest.logger.error(
              `[vitest] Cannot remove snapshot file "${id}". File writing is disabled because server is exposed to the internet, see https://vitest.dev/config/api.`,
            )
            return
          }
          if (!existsSync(id)) {
            throw new Error(`Snapshot file "${id}" does not exist.`)
          }
          await fs.unlink(id)
        },
        getBrowserFileSourceMap(id) {
          const mod = globalServer.vite.moduleGraph.getModuleById(id)
          const result = mod?.transformResult
          // handle non-inline source map such as pre-bundled deps in node_modules/.vite
          if (result && !result.map) {
            const filePath = id.split('?')[0]
            const extracted = extractSourcemapFromFile(result.code, filePath)
            return extracted?.map
          }
          return result?.map
        },
        cancelCurrentRun(reason) {
          vitest.cancelCurrentRun(reason)
        },
        async resolveId(id, importer) {

View on GitHub (pinned to d568f8ce37)

Solutions

1. Run snapshot cleanup serially if multiple workers share a snapshot file (e.g. `--no-file-parallelism` or `pool: 'forks'` with single fork).
2. Avoid manually deleting snapshot files while tests run.
3. Re-run with `--update` to regenerate snapshots before cleanup.

Example fix

// before — manual cleanup racing with vitest
fs.unlinkSync(snapshotPath)

// after — let vitest manage snapshots; run cleanup once
vitest run --update  // then vitest run --clean

import { existsSync } from 'node:fs'

function assertSnapshotExists(path: string): void {
  if (!existsSync(path)) {
    throw new Error(`Refusing to remove missing snapshot: ${path}`)
  }
}

try {
  await fs.unlink(snapshotPath)
} catch (err) {
  if ((err as NodeJS.ErrnoException).code === 'ENOENT') return // already gone
  throw err
}

When it happens

Trigger: The orchestrator calls `removeSnapshotFile` (e.g. during `--clean`/snapshot cleanup, or `--update` discarding obsolete snapshots) for a file path that isn't on disk.

Common situations: Parallel test workers racing to clean the same snapshot; running `--clean` after already-deleting snapshots manually; CI caching that strips snapshot files between runs.

Related errors

• Access denied to "${path}". See Vite config documentation fo
• cannot read ${file} when saving inline snapshot
• provider ${context.provider.name} is not supported
• aria adapter expects an Element
• Couldn't write file to fs

AI-assisted analysis of vitest-dev/vitest@d568f8ce37 (2026-08-03). Data as JSON: /data/errors/1ba3538c38c457ba.json. Report an issue: GitHub.