I’m having trouble with my React project. When I try to run npm start after rebooting my computer, I get this weird error:
Error: ENOSPC: System limit for number of file watchers reached, watch '/home/dev/my-app/public'
The error message is super long and talks about file watchers and stuff. I’m not sure what’s going on. Has anyone seen this before? How can I fix it so I can start working on my project again? I’m pretty new to React and this is driving me crazy. Any help would be awesome!
This issue is often related to system resource limitations rather than React itself. A quick fix that’s worked for me is to temporarily stop any unnecessary background processes or applications that might be consuming file watchers. You can also try running your project with the ‘–max-old-space-size’ flag to allocate more memory:
npm start --max-old-space-size=4096
If the problem persists, you might need to adjust your system’s file watcher limits as others have suggested. Just be cautious when modifying system settings and ensure you understand the implications. Remember to restart your development server after making any changes. Best of luck with your React project!
oh man, that error sucks! i had it too. try cleaning ur npm cache (npm cache clean --force) and deleting node_modules folder. then npm install again. sometimes that fixes weird stuff. good luck with ur react project!
I’ve run into this ENOSPC error before, and it can definitely be frustrating! It’s actually not a React-specific issue, but relates to your system’s file watcher limits. Here’s what worked for me:
Open a terminal and run this command to increase the limit:
echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf && sudo sysctl -p
This bumps up the number of files your system can watch. After running it, try npm start again and it should work.
If you’re not comfortable with terminal commands, you might need to ask someone more tech-savvy for help. Also, keep in mind this is a temporary fix – the limit might reset after reboots.
Hope this helps you get back to coding!