packrat:init() and snapshot() errors with custom packages

[Brinda A. Thomas]

I am trying to use packrat with a Shiny app.  However, the packrat folder is not created with packrat::init().  In addition, the packrat.lock file does not update with packrat::snapshot().

When I try packrat::snapshot, I get the following error:

Error: Unable to retrieve package records for the following packages: ...

This error seems to prevent the packrat folder from being created with the packrat:: init() call.

I am using packrat with a custom package in the Shiny App that is not located in a local repository -- the source files are located on a linux server that I have LAN access to.

Any suggestions?  I am using R version 3.1.3, but I had the same problem with R version 3.1.2, and 3.2.0 (with RStudio)

Thanks