environment variables not working in node js server

Question

When i set my username and password directly in a nodemailer server, it works as expected

auth: {
    user: 'myusername',
    pass: 'mypassword'
},

But on using dotenv, nothing happens

require ('dotenv').config();

auth: {
  user: process.env.USERNAME,
  pass: process.env.PASSWORD
},

I ran npm install dotenv on server side and set up a .env file with the variables below:

USERNAME:myusername

PASSWORD:mypassword

user_3834841 · Answer

As noted in the dotenv docs, it expects the variables in the format NAME=VALUE. Your file should instead contain:

USERNAME=myusername
PASSWORD=mypassword

user_362536 · Answer

The syntax in your .env file is incorrect. Use equals = signs rather than colon :.

USERNAME=myusername
PASSWORD=mypassword

user_18233499 · Answer

i was having the same problem when i had the name of env file as .env.local but when i changed the name of the file to simple .env , it worked!