renv: "No issues found" but sessioninfo::session_info(): Loaded and on-disk path mismatch.

I started a new project with renv. renv::status() reports "No issues found -- the project is in a consistent state." But running sessioninfo::session_info()outputs:

sessioninfo::session_info()
─ Session info ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 setting  value
 version  R version 4.5.2 (2025-10-31)
 os       macOS Tahoe 26.2
 system   aarch64, darwin20
 ui       RStudio
 language (EN)
 collate  en_US.UTF-8
 ctype    en_US.UTF-8
 tz       Europe/Vienna
 date     2025-12-24
 rstudio  2025.09.2+418 Cucumberleaf Sunflower (desktop)
 pandoc   3.8.3 @ /opt/homebrew/bin/pandoc
 quarto   1.8.26 @ /usr/local/bin/quarto

─ Packages ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 ! package     * version date (UTC) lib source
 P cli           3.6.5   2025-04-23 [?] CRAN (R 4.5.0)
   renv          1.1.5   2025-07-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.5.0)
 P sessioninfo   1.2.3   2025-02-05 [?] RSPM

 [1] /Users/petzi/Documents/Meine-Repos/quarto-book-template/renv/library/macos/R-4.5/aarch64-apple-darwin20
 [2] /Users/petzi/Library/Caches/org.R-project.R/R/renv/sandbox/macos/R-4.5/aarch64-apple-darwin20/4cd76b74

 P ── Loaded and on-disk path mismatch.

Google recommends converting pathnames to ASCII. This was not helpful, as none of my pathnames contain special characters.

The Positron assistant recommends essentially restarting R:

The warning "Loaded and on-disk path mismatch" in `sessioninfo::session_info()` output means that some packages are currently loaded from a different location than where they're installed in your `renv` library.

This commonly happens when:

1. **You updated packages** while they were already loaded in your R session
2. **You switched `renv` states** (snapshot/restore) without restarting R
3. **System packages are being used** instead of renv-managed packages

## Solution

**Restart your R session:**

1. In Positron, go to the Console panel
2. Click the **Restart R** button (circular arrow icon), or
3. Use the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P) and type "Restart R"

After restarting, the loaded packages will match the on-disk paths, and the warning should disappear.

## Why `renv::status()` shows no issues

`renv::status()` checks if your `renv.lock` file matches the installed packages in your project library. It doesn't check which packages are currently loaded in memory, which is why it reports everything is consistent.

`sessioninfo::session_info()` reports on the **currently loaded** packages and notices they're from a different path than expected.

**TL;DR:** Restart your R session to clear the warning.

The first two possible reasons (updating packages, switching renv states) do not apply, as I was just creating the project and did not use the mentioned commands.

The third possible reason (System packages are being used) is unclear to me. What follow is the result of renv::diagnostics():

Diagnostics Report [renv 1.1.5]
===============================


# Session Info ---------------------------------------------------------------
R version 4.5.2 (2025-10-31)
Platform: aarch64-apple-darwin20
Running under: macOS Tahoe 26.2

Matrix products: default
BLAS:   /System/Library/Frameworks/Accelerate.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/vecLib.framework/Versions/A/libBLAS.dylib 
LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.5-arm64/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib;  LAPACK version 3.12.1

locale:
[1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

time zone: Europe/Vienna
tzcode source: internal

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices datasets  utils     methods   base     

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] compiler_4.5.2    cli_3.6.5         tools_4.5.2       renv_1.1.5       
[5] sessioninfo_1.2.3

# Project --------------------------------------------------------------------
Project path: "~/Documents/Meine-Repos/quarto-book-template"

# Status ---------------------------------------------------------------------
No issues found -- the project is in a consistent state.

# Packages -------------------------------------------------------------------
            Library Source Lockfile Source Path Dependency
KernSmooth  2.23-26   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
MASS         7.3-65   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
Matrix        1.7-4   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
R6            2.6.1   CRAN    2.6.1   CRAN  [1]   indirect
base64enc     0.1-3   CRAN    0.1-3   CRAN  [1]   indirect
boot         1.3-32   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
bslib         0.9.0   CRAN    0.9.0   CRAN  [1]   indirect
cachem        1.1.0   CRAN    1.1.0   CRAN  [1]   indirect
class        7.3-23   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
cli           3.6.5   CRAN    3.6.5   CRAN  [1]   indirect
cluster     2.1.8.1   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
codetools    0.2-20   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
digest       0.6.39   CRAN   0.6.39   CRAN  [1]   indirect
evaluate      1.0.5   CRAN    1.0.5   CRAN  [1]   indirect
fastmap       1.2.0   CRAN    1.2.0   CRAN  [1]   indirect
fontawesome   0.5.3   CRAN    0.5.3   CRAN  [1]   indirect
foreign      0.8-90   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
fs            1.6.6   CRAN    1.6.6   CRAN  [1]   indirect
glue          1.8.0   CRAN    1.8.0   CRAN  [1]   indirect
grDevices      <NA>   <NA>     <NA>   <NA>  [2]   indirect
graphics       <NA>   <NA>     <NA>   <NA>  [2]   indirect
highr          0.11   CRAN     0.11   CRAN  [1]   indirect
htmltools     0.5.9   CRAN    0.5.9   CRAN  [1]   indirect
jquerylib     0.1.4   CRAN    0.1.4   CRAN  [1]   indirect
jsonlite      2.0.0   CRAN    2.0.0   CRAN  [1]   indirect
knitr          1.51   CRAN     1.51   CRAN  [1]   indirect
lattice      0.22-7   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
lifecycle     1.0.4   CRAN    1.0.4   CRAN  [1]   indirect
memoise       2.0.1   CRAN    2.0.1   CRAN  [1]   indirect
methods        <NA>   <NA>     <NA>   <NA>  [2]   indirect
mgcv          1.9-3   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
mime           0.13   CRAN     0.13   CRAN  [1]   indirect
nlme        3.1-168   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
nnet         7.3-20   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
rappdirs      0.3.3   CRAN    0.3.3   CRAN  [1]   indirect
renv          1.1.5   CRAN    1.1.5   CRAN  [1]     direct
rlang         1.1.7 GitHub    1.1.7 GitHub  [1]   indirect
rmarkdown      2.30   CRAN     2.30   CRAN  [1]     direct
rpart        4.1.24   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
sass         0.4.10   CRAN   0.4.10   CRAN  [1]   indirect
sessioninfo   1.2.3   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [1]       <NA>
spatial      7.3-18   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
stats          <NA>   <NA>     <NA>   <NA>  [2]   indirect
survival      3.8-3   CRAN     <NA>   <NA>  [2]       <NA>
tinytex        0.58   CRAN     0.58   CRAN  [1]   indirect
tools          <NA>   <NA>     <NA>   <NA>  [2]   indirect
utils          <NA>   <NA>     <NA>   <NA>  [2]   indirect
xfun           0.55   CRAN     0.55   CRAN  [1]   indirect
yaml         2.3.12   CRAN   2.3.12   CRAN  [1]   indirect

[1]: /Users/petzi/Documents/Meine-Repos/quarto-book-template/renv/library/macos/R-4.5/aarch64-apple-darwin20
[2]: /Users/petzi/Library/Caches/org.R-project.R/R/renv/sandbox/macos/R-4.5/aarch64-apple-darwin20/4cd76b74 


# ABI ------------------------------------------------------------------------
- No ABI problems were detected in the set of installed packages.

# User Profile ---------------------------------------------------------------
                  Source   Package Require Version  Dev
1 /Users/petzi/.Rprofile  devtools                 TRUE
2 /Users/petzi/.Rprofile rversions                 TRUE
3 /Users/petzi/.Rprofile  testthat                 TRUE

# Settings -------------------------------------------------------------------
List of 13
 $ bioconductor.version     : NULL
 $ external.libraries       : chr(0) 
 $ ignored.packages         : chr(0) 
 $ package.dependency.fields: chr [1:3] "Imports" "Depends" "LinkingTo"
 $ ppm.enabled              : NULL
 $ ppm.ignored.urls         : chr(0) 
 $ r.version                : NULL
 $ snapshot.type            : chr "implicit"
 $ use.cache                : logi TRUE
 $ vcs.ignore.cellar        : logi TRUE
 $ vcs.ignore.library       : logi TRUE
 $ vcs.ignore.local         : logi TRUE
 $ vcs.manage.ignores       : logi TRUE

# Options --------------------------------------------------------------------
List of 10
 $ defaultPackages                     : chr [1:6] "datasets" "utils" "grDevices" "graphics" ...
 $ download.file.method                : chr "libcurl"
 $ download.file.extra                 : NULL
 $ install.packages.compile.from.source: chr "interactive"
 $ pkgType                             : chr "both"
 $ repos                               : Named chr "https://packagemanager.posit.co/cran/latest"
  ..- attr(*, "names")= chr "CRAN"
 $ renv.consent                        : logi TRUE
 $ renv.project.path                   : chr "/Users/petzi/Documents/Meine-Repos/quarto-book-template"
 $ renv.download.headers               :function (url)  
 $ renv.verbose                        : logi TRUE

# Environment Variables ------------------------------------------------------
HOME                        = /Users/petzi
LANG                        = en_US.UTF-8
MAKE                        = make
R_LIBS                      = <NA>
R_LIBS_SITE                 = /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/site-library
R_LIBS_USER                 = /Users/petzi/Documents/Meine-Repos/quarto-book-template/renv/library/macos/R-4.5/aarch64-apple-darwin20
RENV_DEFAULT_R_ENVIRON      = <NA>
RENV_DEFAULT_R_ENVIRON_USER = <NA>
RENV_DEFAULT_R_LIBS         = <NA>
RENV_DEFAULT_R_LIBS_SITE    = /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/site-library
RENV_DEFAULT_R_LIBS_USER    = /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.5-arm64/library
RENV_DEFAULT_R_PROFILE      = <NA>
RENV_DEFAULT_R_PROFILE_USER = <NA>
RENV_PROJECT                = /Users/petzi/Documents/Meine-Repos/quarto-book-template

# PATH -----------------------------------------------------------------------
- /usr/local/bin
- /System/Cryptexes/App/usr/bin
- /usr/bin
- /bin
- /usr/sbin
- /sbin
- /usr/local/sbin
- /var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/local/bin
- /var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/bin
- /var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/appleinternal/bin
- /opt/pmk/env/global/bin
- /Library/Apple/usr/bin
- /opt/X11/bin
- /usr/local/share/dotnet
- ~/.dotnet/tools
- /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/Commands
- /Applications/quarto/bin
- /Library/TeX/texbin
- /Applications/Xamarin Workbooks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/path-bin
- /opt/homebrew/bin
- /opt/homebrew/sbin
- /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/bin
- /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.8/bin
- /usr/texbin
- /Applications/RStudio.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin/postback

# Cache ----------------------------------------------------------------------
There are a total of 27 packages installed in the renv cache.
Cache path: "~/Library/Caches/org.R-project.R/R/renv/cache/v5/macos/R-4.5/aarch64-apple-darwin20"

Is there something wrong with my R installation, or should I ignore the path mismatch?

renv::status() relates only to packages that are actually used by functions defined in your package. It's hard to assess the consistency of your package just by the outputs you provided. I would suggest you go through the package and check all places where you call library(...) or requires(...). Generally, this should not happen, you shouldn't load functions this way

I believe this occurs because of renv's use of a global cache -- that is, packages are installed into a global cache location, and then linked into your project library. When sessioninfo checks if the "loaded" path and the "on-disk" path match, it's not aware that this sort of discrepancy can exist, and so provides this warning.

This may be worth filing as a bug report at GitHub · Where software is built.