Extension 'eslint' is configured as formatter but it cannot format 'JavaScript'-files

Question

I am experiencing an intermittent problem with ESLint in VS Code. When saving a file, instead of formatting it, this message shows in the status bar:

Apparently no one has ever reported this message on Google.

When I say it is intermittent, it was working fine, then the computer (MBP) crashed, and on restarting this is the situation. It has happened previously, but I don't recall what I did to fix it.

The app is a fairly complex Vue-based app based on a pre-configured template. In package.json:

    "@vue/cli-plugin-eslint": "^4.5.13",

    "babel-eslint": "^10.1.0",
    "eslint": "^7.31.0",
    "eslint-plugin-import": "^2.23.4",
    "eslint-plugin-vue": "^7.14.0",

In the VS Code workspace file:

        "editor.codeLens": true,
        "eslint.format.enable": true,
        "editor.codeActionsOnSave": {
          "source.fixAll.eslint": true,
        },
        "[javascript]": {
            "editor.defaultFormatter": "dbaeumer.vscode-eslint"
        },
        "[vue]": {
            "editor.defaultFormatter": "dbaeumer.vscode-eslint"
        },
        "eslint.validate": [
            "javascript"
        ],
        "debug.javascript.usePreview": true,
        "debug.javascript.usePreviewAutoAttach": true,
        "[jsonc]": {
            "editor.defaultFormatter": "dbaeumer.vscode-eslint"
        },

I'm really not sure how to proceed to understand why vscode-eslint is reporting that it can't format JavaScript files.

EDIT

This issue regarding TypeScript gives some hints. It seems this error can result when the ESLint server is restarting or the extension host is under a lot of stress.

In my project now, most files are formatting fine, although one consistently fails. That file is called eslint.js and is part of a build process, running eslint - I don't totally understand the configuration. I suspect that saving this file somehow causes eslint to be run/reloaded, and while that is happening, eslint-vscode tries to also run it and fails.

Answer 1

I was actually experiencing the same problem and I only needed to remove the .eslintignore file, which only contained this line:

.eslintrc.js

You could simply comment that line too.

Hope that helps :)

Answer 2

I was fighting with this for a while, turns out you need to head to Settings, under User go to Extensions > ESLint, scroll down to Format:Enable and enable ESLint as a formatter.

Settings:

Answer 3

This can happen for a variety of reasons. The eslint output logs will tell you the issue.

In my case the settings field configFile was changed to overrideConfigFile