dotenv file is not loading environment variables

Question

I have .env file at root folder file

NODE_ENV=development
NODE_HOST=localhost
NODE_PORT=4000
NODE_HTTPS=false
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_USERNAME=user
DB         


        

Answer 1

I've had this problem and it turned out that REACT only loads variables prefixed with REACT_APP_

VueJs can have a similar issue as it expects variables to be prefixed with: VUE_APP_

Answer 2

In my case .env was read fine, but not .env.local.

Updating package.json to name .env into .env.local ( cp ./.env.local .env) solved the problem:

  "myscript": "cp ./.env.local .env && node ./scripts/myscript.js"

Answer 3

In the remote case that you arrive till this point, my issue was quite dumber: I wrongly named my env variables with colon ":" instead of equals "=". Rookie mistake but the resulting behavior was not loading the misspelled variables assignment.

# dotenv sample content

# correct assignment
USER=sample@gmail.com

# wrong assignment (will not load env var)
USER : sample@gmail.com