npm "failed to parse json"

I had the same problem but "npm cache clean" didnt resolve it for me. I had to go back to my package.json and realize i had comma where it shouldn't i suppose as shown below:

},
  "devDependencies": {
    "axios": "^0.15.3",
    "bootstrap-sass": "^3.3.7",
    "cross-env": "^3.2.4",
    "jquery": "^3.1.1",
    "laravel-mix": "0.*",
    "lodash": "^4.17.4",
    "vue": "^2.1.10",
  }

after the "vue..." so I deleted that and every went back to normal. So it is worth checking the package.json file first before running npm cache clean


Thanks to Jivings from this comment:

npm cache clean

solved the problem.


Mostly, this error is due to a syntax error in package.json file. In my case, the opening curly brace for dependencies object in package.json was missing:-

Code--------------------------------

{
  "name": "psrxjs",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": 
    "rxjs": "^5.4.3"
  }
}


In Laravel project:

  1. Delete 'node_modules' folder;
  2. npm cache clean
  3. npm update