Stuck on Creating an optimized production build forever when development server is running

[YassinEldeeb]

Verify canary release

• I verified that the issue exists in Next.js canary release

Provide environment information

Operating System:
Platform: win32
Arch: x64
Version: Windows 10 Pro
Binaries:
Node: 16.13.0
npm: N/A
Yarn: N/A
pnpm: 6.24.0-1
Relevant packages:
next: 12.1.4
react: 17.0.2
react-dom: 17.0.2

What browser are you using? (if relevant)

No response

How are you deploying your application? (if relevant)

No response

Describe the Bug

I had my development server running in the background without me remembering and I wanted to build my app using next build, that's what I've got:

$ yarn next build
yarn run v1.22.17
$ C:\development\activity-builder\node_modules\.bin\next build
info  - Loaded env from C:\development\activity-builder\.env
info  - Checking validity of types  
warn  - The Next.js plugin was not detected in your ESLint configuration. See https://nextjs.org/docs/basic-features/eslint#migrating-existing-config

./src/components/Activities/ActivityQuestions/DynamicQuestionTypes/MultipleChoice.tsx  
68:40  Warning: Forbidden non-null assertion.  @typescript-eslint/no-non-null-assertion
69:22  Warning: Forbidden non-null assertion.  @typescript-eslint/no-non-null-assertion

./src/components/Activities/ActivityQuestions/Question.tsx
102:13  Warning: Unexpected console statement.  no-console

info  - Need to disable some ESLint rules? Learn more here: https://nextjs.org/docs/basic-features/eslint#disabling-rules
info  - Creating an optimized production build  

And I was stuck for 30 minutes on info - Creating an optimized production build without any indication of anything being wrong, I noticed that the development server was running, after I've shut it down and ran next build again It compiled successfully.

Expected Behavior

• Run next build to compile the app for production even when I'm running the development server.

  OR

• Notify me that the development server is running and needs to be shut down before running next build, that's in case running next build when next is running isn't possible.

Link to reproduction

https://github.com/YassinEldeeb/Next.js-starter

To Reproduce

1. Run next for the development server.
2. Then run next build while the development server is running.

Note: It's not specific to the repository linked above.

[pulkitvyas08]

Facing the same issue

[huanlirui]

i have same issue !!

[huanlirui]

Execute the steps of “ creating an optimized production build ” on the Linux server

node v14.17.0

[benzavision]

same issue

[MarcusHSmith]

Same issue for us

[UmerEdava]

The same issue still exists.... any remedies. In my case, it was hours I stuck at this "creating an optimized production build". And also I didn't run the development server in the background.

[boiboif]

same issue!

[iamharshad]

Same issue for React.js project as well even when development server is not running on

[Dariocoding]

I have the same issue!!!

[zahydo]

Same Issue. In development it worked, but when I try to create the Docker image it stuck

[zahydo]

Same Issue. In development it worked, but when I try to create the Docker image it stuck

I solved with the next steps:

1. Upgrading Next to v12.2.5.
2. Removing local folders: .next, node_modules
3. Installing dependencies again: yarn install
4. Adding this to next-config.js: output: 'standalone'
5. Adding the next paths to the .dockerignore:
   Dockerfile
   .dockerignore
   node_modules
   npm-debug.log
   README.md
   .next
   docker
   .git
6. Creating the image again: docker build ...

[alexcmgit]

Stuck on Creating an optimized production build forever when development server is running.

Same issue but I wasn't aware that this was happening due the open dev webserver.

So the solution for me is on your title: close the development server, then run next build and next export (If you intend to deploy statically).

[vladio71]

Bro y a genius, i was planning to read this thread more but y saved me.

[XahidEx]

I am still facing the same issue. Using the latest NextJs 12.3.2-canary.34 facing this issue since I'm trying 12.3.2-carany.+

[ruvaz]

You can't have both dev and build at the same time.

I solved it very quickly when I realized that there were several nodejs processes open when there should only be 1, and killing all the nodejs processes that were running in the background solved it for me.

It can also happen that a build started to fail and got stuck in the background so you should kill all the nodejs you see running in the task manager. I am using Nextjs 13

[celenac]

Killing the nodejs background processes in my Task Manager worked. Ending the process in the terminal and/or closing the terminal wasn't enough. Thanks!

[XahidEx]

Mine was also solved. I faced this issue because a dependency wasn't comfortable with the latest nextjs. 🙃
Vercel didn't show the error anyway. It was just stuck. 😅

[HelmerBarcos]

Same here while building on Self managed GitLab (Kubernetes cluster + kubernetes runner)

[renny-ren]

Same here, I've tried:

• stop dev server
• remove .next folder
• remove node_modules
• remove yarn.lock and run yarn install again
• upgraded node to 20.10.0
• upgraded next.js to 14.1.0

None of them worked, it just stuck on Creating an optimized production build ... forever, this issue drives me crazy!

[cptiwari20]

same issue

[cptiwari20]

Have you found any solution to it?
I am facing inside ec2 instance

[ummartoor]

same issue in ec2

[davidchang]

increasing server size is what fixed for me - #60147 (comment)

[ManInTheWind]

Same! so what the heck going on when npm run build inside docker

[fedu]

+1

[rayansindi1]

In my case, it works fine when I run build on my local machine but it gets stuck forever when building docker image.

I was using "oven/bun" as my base docker image and I suspected that the issue is from bun's image.

So, I switched to "node:20.11.1-slim" base docker image and I ran "npm install -g bun" in my Dockerfile to install bun and it worked like a charm!

I hope this helps someone

[jpmadrigal07]

After trying all recommendation here and all are not working, I just found out the reason after 2 weeks of debugging is @next/font package, removing it completely fixes my issue. The main reason is that most of the time it fail to download fonts without showing any signs of error.

Hope this helps you guys, cheers!

[MohammadGhorayshi]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with the @next/font package!
I've been struggling with the same issue for a while, and after reading your comment, I decided to remove the package from my project. That solved the problem for me too! It seems that the package was causing the build process to hang without throwing any errors.
I commented this line from layout.tsx:
import { Inter } from 'next/font/google';

I really appreciate you taking the time to post your solution here. It was incredibly helpful and saved me a lot of time and frustration. Thanks again for your contribution!
Cheers!

[Masumraihan]

Make sure to stop the localhost and remove the current .next file.

[deljy]

.next directory is ignored by .dockerignore file when building docker image.

[deljy]

I got a great solution that is not to use this kind of problematic framework anymore.

I hope this helps someone

[deljy]

just joking.
I made it work by removing this tag "--platform linux/amd64" from docker build command.
I think those people who have the same issue with "RUN npm run build;" docker block may try to build the image from mac m1 maybe.

[deljy]

docker/for-mac#7124

It seems like people solved the issue about the "next build" step in the docker image building process by updating their docker desktop version.

[deljy]

Finally it worked by updating the version of docker desktop to the latest one.
I really hope this helps people who have the same trouble here

[jishnu-choyi]

I had this issue on DigitalOcean and AWS EC2 instances. Turns out it was simply RAM running out since the instances were 2GB RAM. After Resizing/upgrading to 4GB RAM, build worked well for me. Posting this in case this is the issue for some people.

[davidchang]

thank you, this helped me solve the issue (on DigitalOcean, i had to increase from 1GB to 2GB, though that pushes me from $6 -> $12 / month)

[jishnu-choyi]

Yes, if deployments are rare, you could switch off the droplet, resize to 1GB and switch on again. Only for builds, you’d need 2GB. But this is tedious.

[jkolyer]

This problem keeps cropping up and can take hours of valuable time to track down. I suggest that Next.js provide more verbose logging to their build process. Right now it's a black box guessing game of "why does the build hang this time". Should not be difficult to add verbose build logging.

In the past I've had to reboot for the build to work !?!. Now the reboot trick doesn't work.

[dwolrdcojp]

This problem keeps cropping up and can take hours of valuable time to track down. I suggest that Next.js provide more verbose logging to their build process. Right now it's a black box guessing game of "why does the build hang this time". Should not be difficult to add verbose build logging.

In the past I've had to reboot for the build to work !?!. Now the reboot trick doesn't work.

This. There goes hours of my day!

Vercel you guys need to fix your framework. Every day I see developers moving away from this framework for stupid issues like this. It makes all the positives about the framework not matter anymore. I've been using Next.js app router for a year in production and every week we're dealing with strange and difficult to debug issues.

[MaciejGarncarski]

Still happening in almighty march 2025

[shajal-kumer]

I think the issue is next/font /google build in next js package.

i just comment google font coding part.. everything working .

[mauudev]

Facing the same issue, in my case upgrading trix version to the latest (2.1.5)

Tried the following with no luck:

• deleting node_modules, .next folders, store cache, etc
• downgrading/upgrading node versions
• downgrading/upgrading trix version one by one from 2.1.5 (latest) to 2.0.0
• downgrading/upgrading next versions (from 14.2.14 latest)

By looking at the htop info it looks like multiple node processes are being spawned, but the memory and CPU resources seems not affected:

Versions lower than 2.0.0 doesn't get stucked in the build step which obligate us to not upgrade this package

[jnissenbaum-fortune]

Just want to add another edge case here for future reference if any of the above doesn't work. I'm using the n package manager and I thought I was changing my local node version to a lower version that was compatible with the next build but it turns out I wasn't because my node version was being managed by homebrew instead of n. See this thread for reference or just run 'brew unlink node' and try again.

[LahmerIlyas]

Removing next/fonts/google fixed the issue for me

[nihat-js]

I appreciate the help. I removed the default import import { Geist, Geist_Mono } from "next/font/google" in layout.tsx, and now it works.

What's interesting is that this is a fresh setup of a Next.js application, and the font error did not happen in the Windows environment, but it occurred on Ubuntu 24.04.

[PerishCode]

Thanks a lot, it works for me.

[RafaSoares1]

It worked for me aswell.

[isaacwasserman]

When I tried building with node 24, next/fonts/google prevented it from completing. However, after downgrading to node 22, next/fonts/google worked again.

[artemptushkin]

I'm here because 4 of my projects are stuck on this command w/o any code update... I fixed it, as mentioned above, by raising the memory