Troubleshooting installation

If better-sqlite3 refuses to install, follow these guidelines:

Use the latest version of better-sqlite3

• Check the releases page to make sure you're using the latest and greatest.

Install a recent Node.js

• Make sure you're using a supported version of Node.js. better-sqlite3 is only tested with currently-supported versions of Node.js.

"Install the necessary tools"

• If you're on Windows, during installation of Node.js, be sure to select "Automatically install the necessary tools" from the "Tools for Native Modules" page.

• If you missed this when you installed Node.js, double-click C:\Program Files\nodejs\install_tools.bat from the File Explorer or run it in a terminal.

This will open an administrative PowerShell terminal and installing Chocolatey, Visual Studio, and Python.

This may take several minutes.

No special characters in your project path

• Make sure there are no spaces in your project path: node-gyp may not escape spaces or special characters (like % or $) properly.

Electron

1. If you're using Electron, use electron-rebuild.

2. If you're using an app.asar bundle, be sure all native libraries are "unpacked". If you're using electron-forge, you should use the auto-unpack-natives plugin

Windows

If you still have issues, try these steps:

1. Delete your node_modules subdirectory
2. Delete your $HOME/.node-gyp directory
3. Run npm install

Still stuck?

Browse previous installation issues.