One error you may encounter in R is:

Error in .Call.graphics(C_palette2, .Call(C_palette2, NULL)) : 
  invalid graphics state

This error may occur for three reasons:

1. You are creating plots in both base R and ggplot2 in the same session.

2. Your version of ggplot2 is not compatible with your version of R.

3. Your graphics settings are preventing new plots from being created.

This tutorial shares three methods you can use to resolve this error.

How to Reproduce the Error

Suppose we attempt to create a scatterplot using the built-in dataset in R:

library(ggplot2)

#attempt to create scatterplot 
ggplot(mtcars, aes(x=mpg, y=hp)) +
  geom_point()

We receive the invalid graphics state error, but it’s not clear why.

The following three methods show how to troubleshoot this error.

Method #1: Fix the Error by Using dev.off()

The first method you should try (and the easiest method) is to simply use dev.off() to shut down the current plotting device.

dev.off()

You can then run your original code again to create the scatterplot.

Method #2: Fix the Error by Restarting RStudio

If the previous method didn’t work, you can try restarting your RStudio session.

In many cases, this can also fix the error because it clears out any previous plot settings that were interfering with your current plot.

Method #3: Fix the Error by Reinstalling ggplot2

If the previous two methods didn’t work, you may need to uninstall and then reinstall ggplot2.

You can use the following syntax to uninstall your current version of ggplot2:

#uninstall ggplot2
remove.packages("ggplot2")

You can then use the following syntax to install the latest version of ggplot2:

#install ggplot2
install.packages("ggplot2")

You can then run the code again to create the scatterplot:

In most cases, we will now be able to create the plot without any errors.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to fix other common problems in R: