If you are using Cocos2d-x 3.17.1, update the cocos2d-x 3rd party libraries. Use v3-deps-156.
From your cocos2d-x root:
./download-deps.py
If you get a version < 156 you can always manually download 156 as a .zip or 156 as a .tar.gz and copy the contents over the top of your cocos2d-x-root/external directory.
what is the command line we run to do this ? (i got 3.17.1 from .zip file and did not clone from github) and why only if we have 3.17.1 do this , older versions update by themselves ?
No nothing updates itself. You can upgrade older versions if you like. You do this wether or not you installed via .zip or GitHub.
The command is stated 
Do I have to put “cocos” before typing that command ?
no because in “./download-deps.py” the “.py” tells your system to execute this file with software that has registered (in OS config) to be launched on py files which should be pyhton.
so I just open the terminal and type it in like that or do I have to CD into a directory ?
Yes…
ok got it figured it out , is there a way to see if we have v3-deps-156 or how are we able to see the version we are using ?
The archive should be saved in your cocos2d-x root
why is it downloading 153 when I run the script ?
Because it hasn’t been updated. See more here: Can not unzip file with cocos::ZipFile(filePath)
ahh ok I see, I don’t have to recreate my project right the new updated libs will automatically be included since I replaced the old ones with the new ones ?
This is true
1 last question, I was looking through the old external folder and seen a “config.json” file and the new 156-libs doesn’t have a “config.json” file is this ok or its missing ? want to make sure before I replace existing external folder with new libs
It’s fine.