# Opam troubles, update doing nothing
**URL:** https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-troubles-update-doing-nothing/17018
**Category:** Ecosystem
**Tags:** opam
**Created:** [July 27, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-troubles-update-doing-nothing/17018 "2025-07-27T01:29:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@quietlight](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/quietlight)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-troubles-update-doing-nothing/17018/1 "2025-07-27T01:29:19Z")
I have been trying to make a new switch with ocaml 5.3.0, but nothing works for me. Even after an opam reinstall, using brew and without. I would clean out the .opam folder and start again, but I have a switch in there that I need. I tried everything I can think of, even after this my default switch is still on 5.1.1 $opam switch reinstall default --packages=ocaml-base-compiler.latest. I did have some switches with 5.2.0 but removed those as they were taking space. I know it used to work.
I think the problem is opam update is not doing anything.
Any ideas how I could fix this. I have a small but important to me project in ocaml. After some time building a big new project with typescript/react assisted by claude, I just want some sanity.
```auto
david@Air ~ opam update
david@Air ~ opam switch list-available
# Listing available compilers from repositories: default
# No matches found
david@Air ~ opam switch create 5.3.0 ocaml-base-compiler.5.3.0
[ERROR] No compiler matching `ocaml-base-compiler.5.3.0' found, use `opam switch list-available' to see what is
available, or use `--packages' to select packages explicitly.
✘ david@Air ~ opam switch
# switch compiler description
→ default ocaml-base-compiler.5.1.1,ocaml-options-vanilla.1 default
finch ocaml-base-compiler.4.14.2 finch
forms ocaml-base-compiler.5.1.1 forms
```
---
### Author:  [@R\_Huxton](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/R_Huxton)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2025, 7:41am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-troubles-update-doing-nothing/17018/2 "2025-07-27T07:41:26Z")
I’m no expert but the obvious next debugging steps are to try `opam switch list-available` with `--debug` in case that prints anything useful. Then to see what is in `opam repository list --all`. Oh - presumably you are on a Mac, judging by your prompt?
---
### Author:  [@quietlight](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/quietlight)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2025, 8:05am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-troubles-update-doing-nothing/17018/3 "2025-07-27T08:05:42Z")
Thanks for your kind reply.
I am not in a huge rush, the world is waking up and i am about to go to bed, but any ideas appreciated. Bound to be something obvious, just not to me.
Here are the results of that.
```auto
david@Air ~ opam switch list-available --debug
00:00.158 CLI Parsing CLI version 2.4
00:00.158 GSTATE LOAD-GLOBAL-STATE @ /Users/david/.opam
00:00.159 RSTATE LOAD-REPOSITORY-STATE @ /Users/david/.opam
00:00.164 CACHE(repository) Loaded /Users/david/.opam/repo/state-1DC2C051.cache in 0.001s
00:00.164 RSTATE Cache found
# Listing available compilers from repositories: default
# No matches found
david@Air ~ opam repository list --all
# Repository # Url # Switches(rank)
platform-cache file:///Users/david/.opam/plugins/ocaml-platform/cache/repo
david@Air ~ opam update
david@Air ~
```
---
### Author:  [@R\_Huxton](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/R_Huxton)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2025, 12:43pm UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-troubles-update-doing-nothing/17018/4 "2025-07-27T12:43:45Z")
Hmm. Why don’t you have a default repository of [ocaml.org](http://ocaml.org) listed?
---
### Author:  [@quietlight](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/quietlight)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2025, 8:53pm UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-troubles-update-doing-nothing/17018/5 "2025-07-27T20:53:28Z")
I don’t know. I am busy elsewhere, when I get a chance I will move ~.opam to something else and try a fresh reinstall. Maybe I can reinstal the packages on the one switch I care about.
Thanks for your kindness
David
---
### Author:  [@kit-ty-kate](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/kit-ty-kate)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2025, 1:51pm UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-troubles-update-doing-nothing/17018/6 "2025-07-28T13:51:22Z")
The empty list of repositories is suspicious. Have you ever ran `opam repository remove default --all` or something similar? What does `cat ~/.opam/repo/repos-config` say?
---
### Author:  [@Chet\_Murthy](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/Chet_Murthy)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2025, 5:07pm UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-troubles-update-doing-nothing/17018/7 "2025-07-28T17:07:42Z")
A tiny suggestion: you don’t need to change anything about your current OPAM configuration to test out new installations. I routinely install opam in a “nonstandard location” so I can have multiple opam installs – typically so I can test out a new opam (e.g. 2.4.1) without disturbing the existing one (e.g. 2.3.0). So I just set the `OPAMROOT` env var:
```auto
export OPAMROOT=/home/chet/Hack/Opam/GENERIC
```
or
```auto
export OPAMROOT=/home/chet/Hack/Opam-2.3.0/GENERIC
```
then I just make sure `opam` is in the path, and I can run `opam init` and it’ll take effect below that `OPAMROOT`.
---
### Author:  [@quietlight](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/quietlight)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-troubles-update-doing-nothing/17018/8 "2025-07-28T21:12:35Z")
I probably did something like “opam switch remove default”, then “opam switch create default 5.3.0” in my effort to get this sorted. Anyway, it was troubling before that.
david@Air ~ cat ~/.opam/repo/repos-config
opam-version: “2.0”
repositories:
“platform-cache”
{“file:///Users/david/.opam/plugins/ocaml-platform/cache/repo”}
david@Air ~
---
### Author:  [@quietlight](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/quietlight)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2025, 9:13pm UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-troubles-update-doing-nothing/17018/9 "2025-07-28T21:13:12Z")
Thanks for that. That could solve my problem.
David
---
### Author:  [@quietlight](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/quietlight)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2025, 12:54am UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-troubles-update-doing-nothing/17018/10 "2025-07-29T00:54:32Z")
I had some time and fixed the problem by moving all .opam folders, reinstalling opam from scratch. Onward.
Thanks for your kind responses.
Regards
David