All EAS builds fail at "Prepare project" — tar extraction error (exit code 2) since 22/03/2026 — no code changes

[antoineunifiber]

Build/Submit details page URL

https://stars-dd6b4.web.app

Summary

Since approximately 22/03/2026 at 10 PM (UTC+1), every EAS build fails at the "Prepare project" phase with:

tar -C /home/expo/workingdir/build --strip-components 1 -zxf /home/expo/workingdir/project.tar.gz exited with non-zero code: 2

15+ consecutive builds have failed. The last successful build ran on 22/03/2026 at 10:23 AM using the exact same codebase, .easignore, and eas.json. No
code changes were made between the last successful build and the first failure.

Steps to reproduce

1. Run eas build --platform android --profile preview on Windows 11 with EAS_NO_VCS=1
2. Archive uploads successfully (~839 KB)
3. Build fails immediately at "Prepare project" with tar exit code 2

What I have tried

• Switching build images: latest, default, sdk-54
• Running with --clear-cache
• Excluding additional directories via .easignore
• Fresh npm install
• Local tar creation and extraction — works fine

Environment

┌──────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│ │ │
├──────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ EAS CLI │ 18.4.0 │
├──────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Expo SDK │ 54 │
├──────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ React Native │ 0.81.5 │
├──────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Node.js │ v24.14.0 │
├──────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ OS │ Windows 11 │
├──────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ VCS mode │ EAS_NO_VCS=1 (no git repo) │
└──────────────┴────────────────────────────┘

Build links

• Last successful: https://expo.dev/accounts/antoinevdsw/projects/happy7-stars/builds/295fba2f-c2ef-4395-984e-f8412e4faaa4
• First failure: https://expo.dev/accounts/antoinevdsw/projects/happy7-stars/builds/1b804dcc-1413-4e58-9f05-159f4a327596
• Latest failure: https://expo.dev/accounts/antoinevdsw/projects/happy7-stars/builds/bff2a33f-b8c5-4b1a-a75d-cf720f56379a

The failure appears to be server-side: nothing changed between builds, local tar works, and archive size is consistent.

Managed or bare?

Managed

Environment

| Workflow | Managed |
| Build environment | preview |

Error output

Build failed

tar -C /home/expo/workingdir/build --strip-components 1 -zxf /home/expo/workingdir/project.tar.gz exited with non-zero code: 2

Reproducible demo or steps to reproduce from a blank project

[MuhDur]

Same problem here. Some builds succeed, others fail with:

package.json does not exist in /home/expo/workingdir/build

No changes between the builds, all builds ran with the same eas build command for development (iOS and Android). Intermittent - same commit succeeds on one attempt, fails on the next.

• EAS CLI: 18.4.0
• Expo SDK: 54
• Platform: Linux
• Git LFS used for large assets (~64MB file)
• --clear-cache, EAS_NO_VCS=1, and requireCommit: true did not help

[chukwumaokere]

Okay I thought I was going crazy, it definitely is happening intermittently between iOS and Android

requireCommit: true did not help either