Nodemon: Error: listen EADDRINUSE: address already in use :::5000

I'm creating a project and using nodejs, express for the backend.
Everything works fine but as I make any change in the file, nodemon is unable to restart the server due to following error:

`Error: listen EADDRINUSE: address already in use :::5000`

**index.js:**

const express = require("express");
const morgan = require("morgan");
const mongoose = require("mongoose");
const cookieParser = require("cookie-parser");
const session = require("express-session");
const FileStore = require("session-file-store")(session);
const dotenv = require("dotenv");
var passport = require("passport");

dotenv.config();

const PORT = process.env.PORT || 5000;

const app = express();

.....

app.listen(PORT, () => console.log(`Server listening on port ${PORT}!`));

**package.json**

<!-- language: lang-json -->

{
"name": "chat-app-backend",
"version": "0.0.0",
"private": true,
"scripts": {
"start": "node index.js",
"dev": "nodemon --ignore 'sessions/' index.js"
},
"dependencies": {
"bcryptjs": "^2.4.3",
"cookie-parser": "^1.4.5",
"cors": "^2.8.5",
"debug": "~2.6.9",
"dotenv": "^8.2.0",
"express": "~4.16.0",
"express-session": "^1.17.0",
"http-errors": "~1.6.2",
"jade": "~1.11.0",
"jsonwebtoken": "^8.5.1",
"mongoose": "^5.9.4",
"morgan": "~1.9.0",
"passport": "^0.4.1",
"passport-jwt": "^4.0.0",
"passport-local": "^1.0.0",
"passport-local-mongoose": "^6.0.1",
"session-file-store": "^1.4.0",
"uuid": "^7.0.2"
},
"devDependencies": {
"nodemon": "^2.0.2"
}
}

I've to explicitly kill the server from the terminal every time, which is not the optimal solution.
I tried several things, but none are working. Even found some issue in nodemon GitHub issue page, but there also I couldn't find anything.

I'm also adding the output of **lsof -i:5000**, even if server I'm closing the server - **node 31625 rishav 20u IPv6 5300049 0t0 TCP *:5000 (LISTEN)**

Your port is used somewhere else. Most likely, you forgot to stop previous instance of node before running new one.

I had the same situation. If you are using Visual Studio Code, check your terminals. You might have other instances of the terminal that is already running your node server.

How I solved it, since I was not running anything on that port and it still gave me the error. Kill node to clear is cache with:

`pkill nodejs` or `pkill node` depending on OS/version

Could also use `fuser -k 8000/tcp` to kill any port immediately. (linux)

If you are working on a file > saved it > then got the errr try this:

> ReSave the file you made changes on once or twice more and the problem goes away for
> me every time.

Save the file once:
```
Error: listen EADDRINUSE: address already in use :::5000
...
[nodemon] app crashed - waiting for file changes before starting...
```
Save the file a seconds time (without making changes) [command]+ s
```
[nodemon] restarting due to changes...
[nodemon] starting `node app.js`
Server is running on port: 5000
```
[![enter image description here][1]][1]


[1]:

I'm experiencing the same with vscode. Rapid "double save" cmd-c works most of times.

I got:

Error: listen EADDRINUSE: address already in use :::8000

**I was trying to look for the process listening to port 8000
and had no luck - there were none** (`sudo netstat -nlp | grep 8000` ).

It turned out **I had `app.listen(8000)` written twice** in my script.

My assumption is that the interference was happening only in a short time when trying to run the script, so looking for processes listening to the port before and after error didn't show any.

I used this to fix the same problem

process.once('SIGUSR2',
function () {
process.kill(process.pid, 'SIGUSR2');
}
);

[To see links please register here]

Controlling shutdown of your script

I think that error happens to me when I shut down the server's terminal without turning off nodemon beforehand.

Then, usually the next day, nodemon starts acting weird.

**How I solved it:**
What I noticed is that when running ***ps -fp $(grep -u my_username)***, I got several instances of nodemon up and running. So I did ***pkill -f nodemon***, which killed all nodemon instances, and then relaunched nodemon and all was good again in the wonderful realm of my Linux server.

My solution is simple
1. suppose ex:- current port is 4000 then change it to 4001.

trust me it will work don't look for a big solution. if the problem with the existing port number change that to different as long as your application works no problem