"The local environment configuration does not allow modifying the backend." when running `amplify env checkout <env_name>`

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JavaScript Framework

Not applicable

Amplify APIs

Not applicable

Amplify Categories

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Environment information

  System:
    OS: macOS 11.7
    CPU: (4) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7360U CPU @ 2.30GHz
    Memory: 357.89 MB / 8.00 GB
    Shell: 5.8 - /bin/zsh
  Binaries:
    Node: 12.22.12 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v12.22.12/bin/node
    npm: 6.14.17 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v12.22.12/bin/npm
  Browsers:
    Chrome: 105.0.5195.125
    Safari: 15.5
  npmGlobalPackages:
    @angular/cli: 14.1.3
    @aws-amplify/cli: 9.2.1
    memlab: 1.1.27
    npm: 6.14.17
    pm2: 5.2.0

Note: amplify -v return 10.0.0.

Describe the bug

When running amplify env checkout dev in an amplify project where there is no backend folder (*), one gets the following error:

The local environment configuration does not allow modifying the backend. Use amplify env pull --envName dev

The environment is checked out (as shown by amplify env list), but the error above still shows.

Moreover, running amplify env pull --envName dev as suggested by the error will yield the following error:

✖ There was an error initializing your environment. ⠋ Creating Zip File at path: ‘/Users/…/erroramplify2/amplify/backend/backend-config.json’ does not exist ✖ Creating Zip 🛑 File at path: ‘/Users/…/erroramplify2/amplify/backend/backend-config.json’ does not exist

(*) Having a project with no backend folder happens when the user responded “No” to “Do you plan on modifying this backend? No” when pulling the project from the cloud with amplify pull --appId <appId>.

Expected behavior

The error message should not show, the environment should simply be “checked out”/switched.

Reproduction steps

1. Initialize a new amplify project: mkdir amplify-project && cd $_ && amplify init
2. Select the default configuration.
3. Create a new env: amplify env add test
4. Create a new folder to pull the origin amplify project into (say, you’re a colleague and want to contribute to the original project): cd .. && mkdir amplify-project-clone && $_
5. Pull the amplify project config: `amplify pull --appId <appId_of_the_amplify_project_initilaized_above>
6. Select again default configuration.
7. When asked Do you plan on modifying this backend?, respond No
8. Run amplify env checkout test
9. See the error

Code Snippet

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Log output

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aws-exports.js

No response

Manual configuration

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Additional configuration

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Mobile Device

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Mobile Operating System

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Mobile Browser

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Mobile Browser Version

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Additional information and screenshots

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[wcricchi]

Is there an update on this issue? The same thing happened to me when I pulled a different env, chose “No” to modifying the backend for that env, but now I cannot make changes to any of my other environments.

[manu2504]

@ykethan any update on this ticket? I’m still facing this really annoying bug as an AWS customer.

I had to rollback to @aws-amplify/cli@9 as v10 is broken on this aspect.