Could Not Spawn Process for Application

If you use Node.js, we strongly recommend that you monitor your site load here.

Node apps often require a lot of server resources, and exceeding the account load limits will cause your user account to be suspended for high server usage.

Could not spawn process for application /[your app path]: The application process exited prematurely.

When running a Node app using Passenger, if you receive an error message that says:

Could not spawn process for application /[your app path]: The application process exited prematurely. Error ID: ######## Error details saved to: /tmp/passenger-error-######.html

This is caused by using import statements of require().

How to Fix the Error

To resolve the error, change your require() statements to import(), as explained in the answer on this discussion.

Troubleshooting Node / Passenger Issues

More detailed error reporting is available by setting the Passenger environment to Development.

To change your environment to Development mode, navigate to:

Login > Plesk > Websites & Domains > [domain] > Node.js

In the Development environment, you will see the full error message:

Error [ERR_REQUIRE_ESM]: require() of ES Module /home/domain.helioho.st/subdomain.domain.helioho.st/index.js from /usr/share/passenger/helper-scripts/node-loader.js not supported. Instead change the require of index.js in /usr/share/passenger/helper-scripts/node-loader.js to a dynamic import() which is available in all CommonJS modules. at TracingChannel.traceSync (node:diagnostics_channel:315:14) at Module.require (/usr/share/passenger/helper-scripts/node-loader.js:80:25) at loadApplication (/usr/share/passenger/helper-scripts/node-loader.js:243:2) at setupEnvironment (/usr/share/passenger/helper-scripts/node-loader.js:214:2) code: 'ERR_REQUIRE_ESM'

Further Support

If after changing your imports to require() it still isn't working, please go back and check all of your steps again. If it still isn't working after you have changed all your import statements and cleared your web browser cache, please make a new post in the Customer Service forum, making sure to provide your username, domain name, and details about the problem, including any error message(s) received.