React Native Fails To Start Server With Error In @react-native-community/cli/build/commands/doctor/healthchecks/index.js

Question

I just created a brand new React Native project, and I can't get it to run. The server always fails on the following:

node_modules/react-native/node_modules/@react-native-community/cli/build/commands/doctor/healthchecks/index.js:48
} catch {}
      ^

SyntaxError: Unexpected token {

The only thing I've found on this issue is this thread, which ends with people saying to post this question on Stackoverflow, hence why I'm here. I've tried the usual: upgrading node versions, removing node_modules and reinstalling, restarting my machine, all to no avail. I even delved into the code to see if I could figure out what's going on, but nothing jumped out at me.

My hope is that others have run into this with new React Native projects and that someone can help me resolve it. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

Answer 1

Sigh.... Well after struggling with this for a day I found the workaround was to run npx react-native start in one console and then run npx react-native run-ios in another. I was just trying to do the latter by itself (which always worked in the past), and I guess that doesn't work anymore.

Answer 2

Probably your node and/or npm version is to old. Check by npm -v and node -v and update to latest version, or suggesting by react-native crew in dependencies from node site. Or if you use nvm try:

nvm install 16.14.0 && nvm alias default 16.14.0 && nvm use 16.14.0

Note that, this is for specific version. For latest, type:

nvm install --lts --latest-npm
nvm use x.x.x  //latest installed version