My npm module seems to be partially disappearing after a while - npm

Question

I have tried over and over and over to find a solution, but I seriously can not understand what is going on.
$ npm -v
6.5.0
$ node -v
v10.10.0
My package.json pulls in the followin dependencies:
{
"private": true,
"scripts": {
"dev": "NODE_ENV=development node_modules/webpack/bin/webpack.js --progress --hide-modules --config=node_modules/laravel-mix/setup/webpack.config.js",
"production": "NODE_ENV=production node_modules/webpack/bin/webpack.js --progress --hide-modules --config=node_modules/laravel-mix/setup/webpack.config.js",
"tests": "phpunit --testdox"
},
"devDependencies": {
"laravel-mix": "^3.0.0",
"lodash": "^4.17.11",
"purifycss-webpack": "^0.7.0",
"tailwindcss": "^0.7.2",
"webpack": "^3.12.0"
},
"dependencies": {
"#bugsnag/js": "^5.1.0",
"#bugsnag/plugin-vue": "^5.1.0",
"axios": "^0.17.1",
"babel-preset-es2015": "^6.24.1",
"blueimp-md5": "^2.10.0",
"clientjs": "^0.1.11",
"css-loader": "^0.28.11",
"dotenv": "^6.2.0",
"glob-all": "^3.1.0",
"js-cookie": "^2.2.0",
"laravel-echo": "^1.4.1",
"libphonenumber-js": "^1.6.9",
"md5": "^2.2.1",
"moment": "^2.22.2",
"postcss-import": "^11.1.0",
"purgecss-webpack-plugin": "^1.4.0",
"purify-css": "^1.2.6",
"pusher-js": "^4.3.1",
"qs": "^6.6.0",
"vee-validate": "^2.1.3",
"vue": "^2.5.17",
"vue-i18n": "^8.3.2",
"vue-router": "^2.8.1",
"vue-wysiwyg": "^1.7.2",
"vuex": "^3.0.1"
}
}
I can do an npm run dev 'x' times without any issue, when all of a sudden, without ever having ran another npm command, or pulled in new dependencies, or whatever, it can all of a sudden complain about a missing modules.
Module build failed: Error: Cannot find module 'es-to-primitive/es6'
This is just an example; it has been other modules as well.
My solution to this is basically:
$ rm -f -R ./node_modules/*
$ npm install
$ npm run dev
This always fixes the issue. I just don't understand why. The dependency should have been installed prior because my previous builds ran just fine. I'm running on a Macbook Pro, and I seriously have no idea what might be causing this behaviour.
On my last run, I checked node_modules/es-to-primitive and there was no es6.js file, so I understand the error, but after doing the above fix, it got that file installed. I guess I just don't understand how it can 'disappear' again after a while...
Anything I'm doing wrong or don't understand properly?
Thanks!

Answer 1

I hope I am not too late, but I had the exact same problem and it was driving me absolutely insane. I had to delete the node_modules directory and reinstall everything up to several times a day, and nothing I did made any difference. It then crossed my mind that iCloud Drive syncing may be causing the problem, as I had my project directory saved in ~/Documents. I tried to delete the directory from iCloud Drive and let it completely sync, and it made it somewhat better but there still were issues with some of the modules. I asked myself, there must be a way to exclude a directory from syncing? And yes, it is!
Apparently, adding .nosync to the name of a file or directory will exclude it from syncing to iCloud Drive. Earlier you could add a blank file named .nosync to any directory to exclude it, but it seems this no longer works, at least not for me on macOS 10.15.2.
With that said, I am very happy to share that renaming the node_modules directory to node_modules.nosync, and adding a link to the new directory to keep npm from complaining, seems to have solved the issue:
$ mv node_modules node_modules.nosync/ && ln -s node_modules.nosync node_modules
After doing this, I have not had to delete and reinstall the modules even once! Everything just works, just as it should.