CouchDB fails to start after applying Windows 10 Creators Update

Question

I'm running CouchDB 2.0 on Windows for development purposes. After applying the Windows 10 Creators Update, the CouchDB service doesn't start anymore. When I try to start it manually, I get a generic "unable to start service" error message.

Answer 1

CouchDB 2.0 on Windows uses the Non-Sucking Service Manager (NSSM) to run itself as service. Apparently, NSSM has problems after the creators update has been applied:

2017-04-26: Users of Windows 10 Creators Update should use prelease build 2.2.4-101 to avoid an issue with services failing to start.

Thus, the problem can be fixed by using the mentioned build of NSSM:

1. Download the pre-release build 2.2.4-101 from https://nssm.cc/download
2. Stop the CouchDB service through the Windows Services dialog (paused is not enough)
3. Overwrite nssm.exe in <CouchDbInstallDir>\bin with the one from the downloaded ZIP file (make sure you pick the right version 32 bit / 64 bit)
4. Start the CouchDB service