What causes "Snapshot file "${id}" does not exist." in vitest-dev/vitest?

Check existence before requesting removal, or catch the error and treat it as a no-op.

vitest-dev/vitest · warning · Error

Snapshot file " " does not exist.

Error message

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

What it means

removeSnapshotFile checks existsSync(id) before calling fs.unlink and throws if the file is absent. The guard prevents an ENOENT from unlink, surfacing a clearer message. It runs after checkFileAccess and the canWrite guard, so it indicates the file was simply not there to remove.

Solutions

Check existence before requesting removal, or catch the error and treat it as a no-op.
Verify the id passed matches an actual on-disk snapshot path.
Avoid running concurrent snapshot cleanups that race on the same file.

Example fix

// before
await rpc.removeSnapshotFile(id) // throws if absent
// after
import { existsSync } from 'node:fs'
if (existsSync(id)) await rpc.removeSnapshotFile(id)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

import { existsSync } from 'node:fs'
function snapshotExists(id: string): boolean { return existsSync(id) }

Try / catch

try { await rpc.removeSnapshotFile(id) }
catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Error && e.message.includes('does not exist')) return // idempotent
  throw e
}

Prevention

Guard removal calls with existsSync when callers may invoke them more than once.
Make cleanup tooling idempotent by catching the not-exist error.
Avoid concurrent cleanups on the same snapshot path.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the removeSnapshotFile RPC (typically via snapshot cleanup tooling) with a path to a snapshot that was already deleted, never written, or whose name differs from what was passed.

Common situations: Running snapshot cleanup twice; passing a snapshot id with a different extension (.snap vs the file path); a previous test run that failed before writing the snapshot; manual deletion of the snapshot file between operations.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of vitest-dev/vitest@1fa9837ec2 (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1ba3538c38c457ba. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: 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) {

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