I am running a react app created with create-react-app ("react": "^16.13.1", nodejs: 13.12.0) on an external drive connected through USB-C to a MacBook Pro (macOS Catalina).
After npm start the app keeps refreshing every ≈ 10 seconds (it's not constant interval) without any change to the files. The page also gets reloaded in the browser.
I prevented Spotlight from indexing this drive (by adding to Privacy) but still the issue persists. Also tried on another MacBook Pro (macOS Catalina). On one of the notebooks there is no antivirus installed.
The same application runs without any reloads from each of the MBPs own internal drives.
I'm not sure what else can trigger the reload on the external drive.
After I start the npm app (disk access led blinks with each app/page reload):
USB-C: sudo lsof +D "/Volumes/USB-C"
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
mds 136 root 21r DIR 1,11 32768 2 /Volumes/USB-C
zsh 81813 username cwd DIR 1,11 32768 250 /Volumes/USB-C/myproject/frontend
zsh 82998 username cwd DIR 1,11 32768 2 /Volumes/USB-C
node 86986 username cwd DIR 1,11 32768 250 /Volumes/USB-C/myproject/frontend
node 86987 username cwd DIR 1,11 32768 250 /Volumes/USB-C/myproject/frontend
node 86988 username cwd DIR 1,11 32768 250 /Volumes/USB-C/myproject/frontend
node 86988 username txt REG 1,11 36204 649396 /Volumes/USB-C/myproject/frontend/node_modules/fsevents/fsevents.node
sudo 87013 root cwd DIR 1,11 32768 2 /Volumes/USB-C
lsof 87014 root cwd DIR 1,11 32768 2 /Volumes/USB-C
lsof 87015 root cwd DIR 1,11 32768 2 /Volumes/USB-C
In normal use (app not running, disk led not blinking, no access)
USB-C: sudo lsof +D "/Volumes/USB-C"
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
mds 136 root 21r DIR 1,11 32768 2 /Volumes/USB-C
zsh 81813 username cwd DIR 1,11 32768 250 /Volumes/USB-C/myproject/frontend
zsh 82998 username cwd DIR 1,11 32768 2 /Volumes/USB-C
sudo 87126 root cwd DIR 1,11 32768 2 /Volumes/USB-C
lsof 87127 root cwd DIR 1,11 32768 2 /Volumes/USB-C
lsof 87128 root cwd DIR 1,11 32768 2 /Volumes/USB-C
I used an USB stick also, I get same behaviour just time between refreshes seems to be a bit longer (probably due to slower speed of the drive)
Update: I formatted the drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and the issue does not appear anymore. Before both drives I tried were using MS-DOS (FAT) filesystem
