By Vishal Basumatary in javascript — Mar 25, 2023

Error: Requiring module "node_modules\react-native-reanimated\src\Animated.js", which threw an exception: Error: Reanimated 2 failed to create a worklet, maybe you forgot to add Reanimated's babel plugin?

If you are a React Native Developer, you might have encountered this error at some point in your development process. This usually happens when you are using the React Native Reanimated library and have not added its babel plugin in your project.

What is Reanimated Library?

Reanimated is a popular animation library for React Native. It allows you to create smooth and performant animations by declaratively describing the animation and using the Animated API to drive it.

Why do we need Babel plugin for Reanimated?

The Reanimated library uses a feature called "worklets" to perform animations on the UI thread in a performant manner. Worklets are functions that are executed on the native side of the app and require some special processing to work correctly. This processing is done by the Reanimated Babel plugin.

How to fix this error?

To fix this error, you need to add the Reanimated Babel plugin to your project. Here are the steps to do it:

Install the Reanimated Babel plugin:


npm install --save-dev react-native-reanimated/plugin

Add the plugin to your babel.config.js file:


module.exports = {
  presets: ['module:metro-react-native-babel-preset'],
  plugins: ['react-native-reanimated/plugin'],
};

After adding the plugin, you might need to restart your development server to see the changes.

Alternate Solution

If adding the Reanimated Babel plugin does not fix the issue, you can try the following:

Clear your node_modules and reinstall:


rm -rf node_modules
npm install

Clear your watchman watches and reset the cache:


watchman watch-del-all
npm start -- --reset-cache

These steps should fix the issue in most cases. However, if the error still persists, you might need to check your code for any other issues that might be causing it.