Kubernetes: /usr/local/bin/kubectl is version 1.19.0, and is incompatible with Kubernetes 1.16.2 - kubernetes

Question

I am setting up Kubernetes for the first on my local machine using Minikube.
I installed kubectl on my local machine using:
curl -LO "https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/$(curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"
chmod +x ./kubectl
sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl
However, when I run the command:
minikube start
I get the following error:
🎉 minikube 1.12.3 is available! Download it: https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/releases/tag/v1.12.3
💡 To disable this notice, run: 'minikube config set WantUpdateNotification false'
🙄 minikube v1.5.2 on Ubuntu 18.04
💡 Tip: Use 'minikube start -p <name>' to create a new cluster, or 'minikube delete' to delete this one.
🔄 Starting existing virtualbox VM for "minikube" ...
⌛ Waiting for the host to be provisioned ...
🐳 Preparing Kubernetes v1.16.2 on Docker '18.09.9' ...
🔄 Relaunching Kubernetes using kubeadm ...
⌛ Waiting for: apiserver
🏄 Done! kubectl is now configured to use "minikube"
⚠️ /usr/local/bin/kubectl is version 1.19.0, and is incompatible with Kubernetes 1.16.2. You will need to update /usr/local/bin/kubectl or use 'minikube kubectl' to connect with this cluster
I don't seem to understand what the error means by:
⚠️ /usr/local/bin/kubectl is version 1.19.0, and is incompatible with Kubernetes 1.16.2. You will need to update /usr/local/bin/kubectl or use 'minikube kubectl' to connect with this cluster
I can't remember installing minikube or Kubernetes before now on my local machine.

Answer 1

I finally figured it out what the issue was.
I ran the command kubectl version and I got the following output:
Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"19", GitVersion:"v1.19.0",
GitCommit:"e19964183377d0ec2052d1f1fa930c4d7575bd50", GitTreeState:"clean",
BuildDate:"2020-08-26T14:30:33Z", GoVersion:"go1.15", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}
Server Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"16", GitVersion:"v1.16.2",
GitCommit:"c97fe5036ef3df2967d086711e6c0c405941e14b", GitTreeState:"clean",
BuildDate:"2019-10-15T19:09:08Z", GoVersion:"go1.12.10", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}
It showed me the date when I installed Kubernetes using minikube installer, which was sometime in 2019 when I was trying out Kubenetes initially.
Here's how I fixed it:
There are 2 solutions:
Solution 1
Uninstall older/previous versions of Kubernetes using minikube on the Linux machine:
minikube stop; minikube delete
docker stop (docker ps -aq)
rm -r ~/.kube ~/.minikube
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/localkube /usr/local/bin/minikube
systemctl stop '*kubelet*.mount'
sudo rm -rf /etc/kubernetes/
docker system prune -af --volumes
Or on Mac:
minikube stop; minikube delete &&
docker stop $(docker ps -aq) &&
rm -rf ~/.kube ~/.minikube &&
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/localkube /usr/local/bin/minikube &&
launchctl stop '*kubelet*.mount' &&
launchctl stop localkube.service &&
launchctl disable localkube.service &&
sudo rm -rf /etc/kubernetes/ &&
docker system prune -af --volumes
Reinstall a new copy of minikube:
curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube_latest_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i minikube_latest_amd64.deb
And then run the command below to pull a new base image of Kubernetes:
minkube start
This pulls a new image of Kubernetes, and also configures kubectl to use minikube.
Solution 2:
Run the command below to downgrade kubectl to the same version as Kubenetes on the local machine:
minikube kubectl
This will install the kubectl compatible version for Kubernetes using minikube
That's all.
I hope this helps

Answer 2

Installing kubectl again solved my issue.
In my case there was no need to uninstall older version I just followed installation steps again and it worked for me.
Update the apt package index and install packages needed to use the Kubernetes apt repository:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y ca-certificates curl
If you use Debian 9 (stretch) or earlier you would also need to install apt-transport-https:
sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https
Download the Google Cloud public signing key:
sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/kubernetes-archive-keyring.gpg https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg
Add the Kubernetes apt repository:
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/kubernetes-archive-keyring.gpg] https://apt.kubernetes.io/ kubernetes-xenial main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list
Update apt package index with the new repository and install kubectl:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y kubectl
I Hope this works for you too