Capacitor+Vite: when including Filesystem plugin, get warning "Unable to read file at path public/plugins", leading to "Failed to resolve module specifier "@capacitor/filesystem"."

Capacitor
1

I’m trying to run a trivial Capacitor app that includes the Filesystem plugin, and it seems to build OK but when I run it in Android Studio I see this warning in AS’s logcat:

D  Registering plugin instance: Filesystem
W  Unable to read file at path public/plugins

… and then, the index.html loads correctly but the JavaScript fails on:

import { Filesystem, Directory, Encoding } from "@capacitor/filesystem"

… generating the logcat message:

File: - Line 827 - Msg: TypeError: Failed to resolve module specifier "@capacitor/filesystem".

So it looks like public/plugins is never created, leading to the failure. I have installed @cordova/filesystem multiple times, and it appears in my package.json (see below). There is indeed no public/plugins anywhere under my app’s root directory, from a find . -name public. If public/plugins is supposed to be created, what normally creates it?

I’m using the latest Vite for bundling (my understanding is that Capacitor requires a bundler, right?). This app was “converted” from the demo Cordova app (as creating a new Capacitor app with npm init @capacitor/app@latestfails as reported here).

My webDir is set to "www" in capacitor.config.json. When I build and run from the command line with npx cap run android, the same thing happens-- index.html loads but the JS doesn’t run.

Before I build and run in Android Studio, I run npx vite build www && npx cap sync. Is this right?

This is all using the latest versions of almost everything, I believe (updated from previous thread):

  • MacOS 26.5.2 (M1 on Apple Silicon)
  • Android Studio Quail 3 | 2026.1.3
  • Android emulator for Pixel 7, API 36.1 (not the latest)
  • Gradle 9.6.1
  • JVM 21, set everywhere I can find (not the latest)
  • Capacitor 8.5.0
  • Vite 8.2.0

Relevant files are shown below. Note that some still include artifacts from Cordova.

Thank you for any help!

[This post is a continuation of this thread, put here with newly-found and clearer info because I can’t edit the original.]

Here’s www/index.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no">
        <meta name="msapplication-tap-highlight" content="no">
        <meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1, width=device-width, viewport-fit=cover">
        <meta name="color-scheme" content="light dark">
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/index.css">
        <title>Capacitor + Vite test</title>
        <script type="module" src="js/index.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
        Capacitor + Vite test
    </body>
</html>

Here’s www/js/index.js:

import { Filesystem, Directory, Encoding } from "@capacitor/filesystem";

alert('starting Capacitor app') ;

let lib= await Filesystem.stat({
    directory: Directory.Library,
    path: '.',
}) ;

alert(lib) ;

Here’s capacitor.config.json:

{
  "appId": "com.jmarshall.testcapvite",
  "appName": "TestCapacitorVite",
  "webDir": "www"
}

Here’s package.json:

  "name": "com.jmarshall.testcapvite",
  "displayName": "TestCapacitorVite",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "A sample Apache Cordova application that responds to the deviceready event.",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": [
    "ecosystem:cordova"
  ],
  "author": "Apache Cordova Team",
  "license": "Apache-2.0",
  "devDependencies": {
    "@capacitor/cli": "^8.5.0",
    "cordova-android": "^15.1.0",
    "vite": "^8.1.5"
  },
  "cordova": {
    "platforms": [
      "android"
    ]
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@capacitor/android": "^8.5.0",
    "@capacitor/core": "^8.5.0",
    "@capacitor/filesystem": "^8.1.2"
  }
}
Capacitor+Vite: can't build from CLI, can build in Android Studio but run gets "Uncaught TypeError: Failed to resolve module specifier "@capacitor/filesystem"."