When I start HA node-red, I get a failure "Flows stopped due to missing node types.". Most of the nodes are related to Bluelinky but trying to reload node-red-contrib-bluelinky fails.
I am doing a major change in HA because I am going to a new zigbee radio (what a bloody pain) and this might have affected things somehow (????) because some zigbee entities used in node red have changed.
I have restored from a backup of this morning before I started all this but the node red error persists. I have restored a one week old backup and the errors are still there. The automations that have worked up until this morning are no longer working even after the restore.
Any input how to get back to a working node red configuration would be appreciated.
#Node red is completely broken, restoring previous backups (multiple) did not fix the issue
rigid bough
rigid bough
I tried installing a missing node type and got this:
2025-04-19T14:51:04.917Z Install : node-red-contrib-controltimer 0.4.1
2025-04-19T14:51:04.941Z npm install --no-audit --no-update-notifier --no-fund --save --save-prefix=~ --omit=dev --engine-strict node-red-contrib-controltimer@0.4.1
2025-04-19T14:51:07.682Z [err] npm warn deprecated har-validator@5.1.5: this library is no longer supported
2025-04-19T14:51:07.695Z [err] npm warn deprecated request-promise@4.2.6: request-promise has been deprecated because it extends the now deprecated request package, see https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142
2025-04-19T14:51:07.918Z [err] npm warn deprecated uuid@3.4.0: Please upgrade to version 7 or higher. Older versions may use Math.random() in certain circumstances, which is known to be problematic. See https://v8.dev/blog/math-random for details.
2025-04-19T14:51:07.961Z [err] npm warn deprecated request@2.88.2: request has been deprecated, see https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142
2025-04-19T14:51:08.798Z [err] npm error code E404
2025-04-19T14:51:08.798Z [err] npm error 404 Not Found - GET https://registry.npmjs.org/node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575/-/node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575-1.0.10.tgz - Not found
2025-04-19T14:51:08.798Z [err] npm error 404
2025-04-19T14:51:08.799Z [err] npm error 404 'node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575@https://registry.npmjs.org/node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575/-/node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575-1.0.10.tgz' is not in this registry.
2025-04-19T14:51:08.799Z [err] npm error 404
2025-04-19T14:51:08.799Z [err] npm error 404 Note that you can also install from a
2025-04-19T14:51:08.799Z [err] npm error 404 tarball, folder, http url, or git url.
2025-04-19T14:51:08.802Z [err] npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: /root/.npm/_logs/2025-04-19T14_51_05_053Z-debug-0.log
2025-04-19T14:51:08.822Z rc=1
I have no clue what is happening. Trying to install another missing node type gives a similar response.
winter forum
Did you try uninstalling the NR add on, rebooting, and then reinstalling it?
rigid bough
I uninstalled, rebooted, reinstalled but NR will not start 😦 .... found that SSL was enabled by default but I don't have a certificate so I removed the SSL option and NR started but the same errors (missing node types) is still present. I attempted to install one of the missing node types (node-red-contrib-cron-plus) but got a similar bunch of error messages as already posted above. It refers to a log at /root/.nmp/_logs ..... but I don't know where that would be if NR is installed as an add-on in HA.
It strikes me as odd that all of this happened when I was trying to migrate to a different zigbee radio. I also don't understand why I can not recover a working system when I restore from previous full backups
winter forum
At the risk of annoying others here but with good intentions, I plugged your OP into chat GPT. The response makes sense, but ymmv...
The error you're encountering when trying to install a Node-RED node (node-red-contrib-controltimer) is not directly caused by the Zigbee radio setup, but rather by a dependency issue with another unrelated node: node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575.
What’s Actually Happening
You ran:
npm install node-red-contrib-controltimer@0.4.1
But during that install, npm tried to resolve all dependencies in your environment (not just for the one node you were installing). One of those dependencies is:
node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575@1.0.10
That node no longer exists (404 error), which causes the whole npm install process to fail.
Root Cause
node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575@1.0.10 was referenced in your flow or your existing package.json, but it has been removed from the npm registry.
When installing or updating any node, npm will validate all dependencies, even for unrelated nodes.
This missing package causes npm to halt the entire install process with error code E404.
Fix Options
Option 1: Remove the Missing Node
If you're not using node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575, remove it:
-
Go to Node-RED’s Manage Palette.
-
Look for node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575.
-
If it's listed, uninstall it.
-
Restart Node-RED.
Then try installing node-red-contrib-controltimer again.
Option 2: Manually Edit package.json
If you can't remove it via the palette:
-
SSH into your Node-RED directory (usually ~/.node-red/).
-
Open package.json.
-
Remove any line that refers to node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575.
-
Run:
npm install
- Then retry installing your desired node:
npm install node-red-contrib-controltimer
Option 3: Reinstall from Scratch (last resort)
If the environment is broken:
cd ~/.node-red
mv node_modules node_modules.bak
mv package-lock.json package-lock.json.bak
npm install
rigid bough
Thank you very much for the detailed response. I am not using node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575 anywhere in my installation. I used file editor to go to homeassistant/node-red and that directory is empty. Am I looking in the wrong node-red directory (keeping in mind that node-red was installed as an add-on to home assistant)?
My apologies for being clueless 😦
rigid bough
A bit of an update: I did find that I use a PCF8575 port expander chip via an esp8266 chip which in turn runs under ESPhome. Under node red I control the pins of the PCF8575 but that is not done with a node-red node type. ESPHome exposes the port expander pins (PCF8575) as entities and I switch these entities in node red.
On the home assistant computer there is no such directory as ~/.node-red so I am stuck on that front.
winter forum
Why I focused on node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575
This part of the log:
npm error 404 Not Found - GET https://registry.npmjs.org/node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575/-/node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575-1.0.10.tgz
npm error 404 'node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575@...tgz' is not in this registry.
means: npm failed to install something because it tried to fetch a package that no longer exists in the npm registry — specifically node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575.
Here’s why that matters:
• npm install of any node (like node-red-contrib-controltimer) resolves the full dependency graph for all nodes in your flow/config/package.json.
• If any referenced dependency is invalid, the entire install fails. That’s standard npm behavior.
• This doesn’t mean you’re using node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575, just that it’s present in your Node-RED environment (either package.json, your flows, or package-lock.json).
So my working assumption was:
You’re trying to install node-red-contrib-controltimer, but npm crashes because it stumbles over the missing redplc-pcf8575 node, which it thinks is still part of your project.
That’s why I focused on it — not because of what you’re doing with ESPHome or the PCF chip itself, but because that node’s missing package is killing all npm install operations.
In HA vs standalone or docker install,
- Go to Home Assistant → Settings → Add-ons → Node-RED → Terminal.
2. Or install the “Advanced SSH & Web Terminal” add-on with Protection mode turned off.
3. Run the following:
cd /config/node-red
cat package.json
Look for this line
"node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575": "1.0.10"
Or a different version of it
If it is there, run
nano package.json
You might need to sudo nano instead.
Remove that line, being careful with commas (don’t leave a trailing comma if it was the last entry).
Then run: npm install
To resend the packages.
Good luck!
rigid bough
Tried #1 all ok except for the last step (terminal) - there is no such option in my install
Used the 'terminal' function on the left panel from Home assistant (just a few lines up from 'settings'). Changed to the node-red sub-directory as you say but there is nothing in that director (tried ls -a and only get '.' and ' ..') .
What am I doing wrong?
On a related note, how could I grab all my flows so I can try and delete everything and re-install on a new node-red installation? There are a number of nodes in my flows that are also missing so I don't know if exporting the flows would work (double clicking on the missing node shows none of the configuration that the node used to contain). My flows contain literally months of work and if they can't be recovered it would be a disaster.
rigid bough
WoooooHoooo !!!!!! I have it somewhat sorted!!!! As it turns out, if I go into HA terminal, I need to "cd addon_configs", then I do an " ls" and there will be a directory ??????_nodered. The question marks designate some sort of random alpha numeric name. Once I cd'd into that nodered directory I found the package.json file and it did in fact contain the "node-red-contrib-redplc-rpi-pcf8575" entry (still don't know why it was there) which I was able to delete. I couldn't run npm install but a reboot of the Home Assistant computer fixed things right up. All the missing node types went away. I am still left with buggered up zigbee stuff but this was a HUGE relief to get node red functional again. I can now work on fixing my zigbee stuff and hopefully I didn't bugger up anything in node red .
T H A N K Y O U !!!!!!
winter forum
Excellent news! It shows that gpt, while not perfect, helps with the detective work, and then a little patience, persistence, creativity and teamwork can get it over the goal line! 😉. Just pay it forward.
winter forum
Tried #1 all ok except for the last step (terminal) - there is no such option in...
To the point of having extra flow backups, you can select all nodes in a flow (and I believe multiple flows) and go to the “hamburger menu” then click export (or ctrl-E). Then copy the json it creates into a txt file. Name the tx file your flow name.txt, and back that up as desired. That will save your flows. You’d still need all required nodes installed, but it provides some extra security beyond HA backup processes.