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Troubleshooting: Rebuild Container

Sometimes the cloud computer gets “stuck.” Maybe the terminal froze, or R crashed.

The Fix: We don’t fix broken computers; we get new ones. “Rebuilding the Container” is the cloud equivalent of “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”—but better, because it gives you a fresh machine while keeping your files safe.

When to use this?

If things break:

  • Terminal frozen: You type, but nothing appears.
  • Render fails: You get weird errors that make no sense.
  • Environment issues: R or Python can’t find a package that was there yesterday.

One warning that does not need a rebuild: “no TeX installation was found.” That one is harmless as long as your HTML file was created — see the TeX Warning rule in Render with Quarto.

Before you rebuild, commit and sync your saved work first — see Commit Your Work for the steps with screenshots.

Steps

  1. Open the Command Palette
    • Press F1 (or Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows / Cmd+Shift+P on Mac).
    • A search bar will appear at the very top of the screen. This is the “God Mode” search bar for VS Code.
  2. Search
    • Type: Rebuild Container
  3. Execute
    • Click on the option that says: Codespaces: Rebuild Container
  4. Wait (~2-5 minutes)
    • The screen will reload.
    • Don’t Panic: You might see a black screen with scrolling text logs. This is normal: it is reinstalling the software.
    • When your files reappear in the Explorer, you are ready to go.

Did I lose my work?

  • Saved files: No. Anything you pressed Ctrl+S on is safe.

  • Unsaved typing: Yes.

  • R Memory: Yes. You will need to re-run your code chunks from the top.