Have you ever saved a file in your React or Next.js project and... nothing happened? You go to the browser, manually refresh it, and only then the change shows up. Or maybe you have to kill the dev server and start it again just to see your new code.
Most beginners think this is a bug in their code. But let me tell you, it is actually one of the most common issues you will face if you are coding on Windows.
Why Does This Happen Behind the Scene??
When we run our dev server, Vite and Next.js use a "file watcher" to detect changes and trigger Hot Module Replacement (HMR). On macOS or Linux, this file watcher works perfectly and instantly. But on Windows, these file system events often fail to fire.
Because the watcher misses the change, HMR never triggers, and you are stuck manually refreshing.
The fix? We just need to tell our server to actively check for changes every single second instead of waiting to be notified. In programming, this is called polling.
Fix for React (Vite)
If you are building with Vite, the fix is super simple. Open your vite.config.ts and just add this server option:
TypeScript
export default defineConfig({
plugins: [react()],
server: {
watch: {
usePolling: true,
},
hmr: {
host: 'localhost',
},
},
})
Fix for Next.js
Next.js is a bit tricky here. Next.js 16 uses Turbopack by default, but our polling fix only works with Webpack. So, first, we need to disable Turbopack.
Go to your package.json and update your dev script to this:
JSON
"scripts": {
"dev": "next dev --webpack"
}
Then, open your next.config.ts and add this configuration:
TypeScript (or if you are on JS)
import type { NextConfig } from "next";
const nextConfig: NextConfig = {
webpack: (config) => {
config.watchOptions = {
poll: 1000,
aggregateTimeout: 300,
};
return config;
},
};
export default nextConfig;
What is happening here? poll: 1000 means Webpack will check for file changes every 1000 milliseconds (1 second). aggregateTimeout: 300 adds a tiny delay so that if you mash Ctrl+S rapidly, it doesn't trigger multiple rebuilds at the same time. Restart your dev server, and auto-refresh will finally work!
What if you are using WSL2?
If you are running WSL2 and still facing this, the problem is likely where your project is stored.
Your project needs to live inside the WSL filesystem — at a path like /home/yourname/projects/. If your project is sitting on your Windows drive (like /mnt/c/Users/...), file events will not work properly and polling alone might not save you. Move the project inside /home/ and the issue goes away.
This Next.js issue tripped me up for a while — just adding watchOptions does not work until you switch back to Webpack first. Once I figured that out, everything clicked.
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