diff --git a/lib/npm.js b/lib/npm.js
index 2197f11a52c4a..66111cab89a84 100644
--- a/lib/npm.js
+++ b/lib/npm.js
@@ -241,16 +241,18 @@ class Npm extends EventEmitter {
     await this.time('npm:load:configload', () => this.config.load())
 
     // mkdir this separately since the logs dir can be set to
-    // a different location. an error here should be surfaced
-    // right away since it will error in cacache later
+    // a different location. if this fails, then we don't have
+    // a cache dir, but we don't want to fail immediately since
+    // the command might not need a cache dir (like `npm --version`)
     await this.time('npm:load:mkdirpcache', () =>
-      fs.mkdir(this.cache, { recursive: true, owner: 'inherit' }))
+      fs.mkdir(this.cache, { recursive: true, owner: 'inherit' })
+        .catch((e) => log.verbose('cache', `could not create cache: ${e}`)))
 
     // its ok if this fails. user might have specified an invalid dir
     // which we will tell them about at the end
     await this.time('npm:load:mkdirplogs', () =>
       fs.mkdir(this.logsDir, { recursive: true, owner: 'inherit' })
-        .catch((e) => log.warn('logfile', `could not create logs-dir: ${e}`)))
+        .catch((e) => log.verbose('logfile', `could not create logs-dir: ${e}`)))
 
     // note: this MUST be shorter than the actual argv length, because it
     // uses the same memory, so node will truncate it if it's too long.
diff --git a/lib/utils/log-file.js b/lib/utils/log-file.js
index 9cf6513bedf48..d62329c8551e2 100644
--- a/lib/utils/log-file.js
+++ b/lib/utils/log-file.js
@@ -204,7 +204,9 @@ class LogFiles {
       this.#files.push(logStream.path)
       return logStream
     } catch (e) {
-      log.warn('logfile', `could not be created: ${e}`)
+      // If the user has a readonly logdir then we don't want to
+      // warn this on every command so it should be verbose
+      log.verbose('logfile', `could not be created: ${e}`)
     }
   }
 
@@ -226,7 +228,7 @@ class LogFiles {
       )
 
       // Always ignore the currently written files
-      const files = await glob(globify(logGlob), { ignore: this.#files.map(globify) })
+      const files = await glob(globify(logGlob), { ignore: this.#files.map(globify), silent: true })
       const toDelete = files.length - this.#logsMax
 
       if (toDelete <= 0) {
diff --git a/test/lib/npm.js b/test/lib/npm.js
index cd692a93f5077..f440b3320a6e1 100644
--- a/test/lib/npm.js
+++ b/test/lib/npm.js
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ const { resolve, dirname, join } = require('path')
 
 const { load: loadMockNpm } = require('../fixtures/mock-npm.js')
 const mockGlobals = require('../fixtures/mock-globals')
+const fs = require('@npmcli/fs')
+
+const getMode = (f) => (fs.statSync(f).mode & parseInt('777', '8')).toString(8)
 
 // delete this so that we don't have configs from the fact that it
 // is being run by 'npm test'
@@ -435,23 +438,45 @@ t.test('debug log', async t => {
     t.match(debug, log2.join(' '), 'after load log appears')
   })
 
-  t.test('with bad dir', async t => {
-    const { npm } = await loadMockNpm(t, {
-      config: {
-        'logs-dir': 'LOGS_DIR',
-      },
-      mocks: {
-        '@npmcli/fs': {
-          mkdir: async (dir) => {
-            if (dir.includes('LOGS_DIR')) {
-              throw new Error('err')
-            }
-          },
-        },
-      },
+  t.test('can load with bad dir', async t => {
+    const { npm, cache } = await loadMockNpm(t, {
+      load: false,
     })
 
-    t.equal(npm.logFiles.length, 0, 'no log file')
+    const logsDir = join(cache, '_logs')
+
+    // make inaccessible logs dir before load
+    await fs.mkdir(logsDir, { recursive: true, mode: '400' })
+
+    await t.resolves(npm.load(), 'loads with 400 logs dir')
+
+    t.equal(npm.logFiles.length, 0, 'no log files array')
+    t.strictSame(fs.readdirSync(logsDir), [], 'no actual log files')
+    t.equal(getMode(logsDir), '400')
+  })
+})
+
+t.test('cache dir', async t => {
+  t.test('creates a cache dir', async t => {
+    const { npm } = await loadMockNpm(t)
+
+    t.ok(fs.existsSync(npm.cache), 'cache dir exists')
+  })
+
+  t.test('can load with bad dir', async t => {
+    const { npm, cache } = await loadMockNpm(t, {
+      load: false,
+    })
+
+    // rm cache dir since it is created by mockNpm
+    // then recreate inaccessible cache dir
+    await fs.rm(cache, { recursive: true, force: true })
+    await fs.mkdir(cache, { recursive: true, mode: '400' })
+
+    await t.resolves(npm.load(), 'loads with 400 cache dir')
+
+    t.strictSame(fs.readdirSync(cache), [], 'nothing in cache dir')
+    t.equal(getMode(cache), '400')
   })
 })