[Solved] Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'react-dom/client' in ''

Problem:

Running into the following error when trying to start the development server of a create-react-app via npm start:

Module not found: Error: Can't resolve 'react-dom/client' in '<local_path>'

Solution:

One potential issue that might be causing this issue could be versioning issues. The index.js file created after running npx create-react-app uses React version 18 but I had downgraded to React version 17 afterwards without making the necessary changes to the index.js file.

This issue's resolution called for having to make the following modifications to the index.js file:

import React from 'react';
// import ReactDOM from 'react-dom/client'; <- This import is only for React version 18
import { render } from 'react-dom'; // <- This is the correct import statement for React version 17
import './index.css';
import App from './App';
import reportWebVitals from './reportWebVitals';

// const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById('root'));
const root = document.getElementById('root'); // <- This is the correct method call for React version 17
render(
  <React.StrictMode>
    <App />
  </React.StrictMode>,
  root
);

Making the above changes should resolve your issue if you followed the same approach I did.

Hope this helps.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this blog post!

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