Fixing White Screen in React + Netlify: “Unexpected token <” Error Solved

When I deployed my React app on Netlify, everything worked fine in local build (npm start, npm run build).
But on production deploy, the site showed only a white screen.

In the console, I saw this error:

Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token '<'

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What this error means

This usually happens when Netlify serves index.html instead of the JS bundle.
React apps are SPAs (single page applications), and without proper redirects, Netlify gets confused.

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The Fix ✅

1. Check build settings on Netlify

• Build command → npm run build
• Publish directory → build

1. Add _redirects file inside public/ folder Create a file named _redirects (no extension) with this content:

   /*    /index.html   200

1. Clear cache & redeploy
   In Netlify → Deploys tab → “Clear cache and redeploy”.

2. Test production build locally
   

   npm run build
   npx serve -s build

If this works locally, your code is fine.

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Bonus Tip

In my case, even after clearing cache the white screen stayed.
When I created a fresh new deploy from scratch, everything started working.

So if nothing works:
👉 Delete the old site in Netlify → create a new one → link GitHub repo → deploy.

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Conclusion

This bug wasted me hours 😅, but the lesson is:

• Always add _redirects file
• Always test production build locally
• If all else fails → redeploy fresh

Hopefully this helps someone save time! 🚀