[SOLVED] Cordova 8: Could not install from "ios" as it does not contain a package.json file

Cordova 8: Could not install from "ios" as it does not contain a package.json file

I removed my ios platform and tried to add it back again, but now it says there is a problem and it needs package.json.

How do I fix ios platform so it has a package.json?

Running 8.1.2 (also tried in 8.0) with cordova-ios@4.5.4

$ cordova platform add ios
{ Error: npm: Command failed with exit code 1 Error output:
npm ERR! code ENOLOCAL
npm ERR! Could not install from "ios" as it does not contain a package.json file.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/mikenelson/.npm/_logs/2018-10-11T09_47_23_544Z-debug.log
    at ChildProcess.whenDone (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/cordova/node_modules/cordova-common/src/superspawn.js:169:23)
    at emitTwo (events.js:106:13)
    at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:191:7)
    at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:877:16)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:226:5)
stderr: 'npm ERR! code ENOLOCAL\nnpm ERR! Could not install from "ios" as it does not contain a package.json file.\n\nnpm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:\nnpm ERR!     /Users/mikenelson/.npm/_logs/2018-10-11T09_47_23_544Z-debug.log\n',
code: 1 }

Update

8 months later I just did the same thing again, but this time I created a folder called 'android' in my project root, just to put some stuff in. So I got:

Could not install from "android" as it does not contain a package.json file

The problem, as Luigi Lopez points out in the comments, is you cannot create a folder called 'ios' or 'android' in the project root. It thinks you are wanting to install the platform from your local folder.

Solution

I'm not sure it is the same case but I was receiving the same error in a Ionic 4 project and what worked for me was to remove ios/ directory under the project root and re-running the command: ionic cordova platform add ios