Automatic update failed. Please try updating manually

[liusheng2020]

What happened?

Gemini CLI update available! 0.18.4 → 0.19.0
Installed with npm. Attempting to automatically update now...

✕ Automatic update failed. Please try updating manually

What did you expect to happen?

norma update automatically

Client information

About Gemini CLI

CLI Version 0.18.4
Git Commit 2e8d7831c
Model gemini-3-pro-preview
Sandbox no sandbox
OS linux
Auth Method OAuth
User Email liusxxxxxxx.edu.cn
GCP Project xxxxxxxx

Login information

No response

Anything else we need to know?

No response

[gemini-cli[bot]]

Found possible duplicate issues:

• #6741
• #11504
• #13807
• #10780
• #4076

If you believe this is not a duplicate, please remove the status/possible-duplicate label.

[galz10]

Hi @liusheng2020 , thanks for filling this issue, to get a better understanding of what's going on here, how did you initially install the cli ?

[liusheng2020]

I initially install the cli by: rm -rf /home/ls2410/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/@google/gemini-cli npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@latest

every time "Automatic update failed. Please try updating manually", I run：

rm -rf /home/ls2410/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/@google/gemini-cli
npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@latest

to update it manually.

But it always "Automatic update failed".

[liusheng2020]

Hi @liusheng2020 , thanks for filling this issue, to get a better understanding of what's going on here, how did you initially install the cli ?嗨，感谢您填写这个问题，为了更好地理解这里发生的事情，您最初是如何安装cli的？

I forget how initially install the cli. But every time "Automatic update failed. Please try updating manually", I run：

rm -rf /home/ls2410/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/@google/gemini-cli
npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@latest

so that it can be updated manually.

But it always "Automatic update failed". How can it Automatic update successfully without manually operation and without "rm -rf xxxx” ?

[AndreSand]

+1 Also I get the same error

[Lyonk71]

I'd been getting the same issue / temporary resolution for weeks. Originally installed on Fedora 43 using

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@preview`

I eventually resolved the issue by running:

npm uninstall -g @google/gemini-cli
rm -rf ~/.gemini

I did a system update & restart after that, but that is superstition and not actually required

then reinstall:

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

Updates have been working smoothly for me again. just needed to re-install plugins and stuff after the full removal.

[pasarenicu]

1. Create a directory for global packages in your home folder:

   mkdir ~/.npm-global
   

2. Configure npm to use this new directory:

   npm config set prefix '~/.npm-global'
   

3. Update your PATH (so your terminal can find the installed tools): Open your profile file (usually ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile) and add this line to the bottom:

   export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH
   

4. Refresh your terminal:

   source ~/.bashrc
   

5. Try installing again (without sudo):

   npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@preview
   

[liusheng2020]

1. Create a directory for global packages in your home folder: mkdir ~/.npm-global
2. Configure npm to use this new directory: npm config set prefix '~/.npm-global'
3. Update your PATH (so your terminal can find the installed tools): Open your profile file (usually ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile) and add this line to the bottom: export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH
4. Refresh your terminal: source ~/.bashrc
5. Try installing again (without sudo): npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@preview

not work

[AndreSand]

I'm on using laptop MacBook M4, and I managed to fix the issue with help from Claude Code

Fix:

sudo rm -rf /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/@google/gemini-cli
sudo npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

[camelator]

same issue here on ubuntu