Javascript – Trouble Accessing req.body in Middleware: Getting Empty Response

I’m encountering an issue while trying to access req.body within a middleware function in my Node.js application. Whenever I attempt to access req.body, it consistently returns empty, despite expecting data to be present in the request body. I’ve checked my middleware setup and made sure that body-parser middleware is correctly configured, yet the problem persists.

Could anyone shed some light on why req.body might be empty in this scenario? What are some common pitfalls or misconfigurations that could lead to this behavior?
userExists.js

I’ve already confirmed the following:

Middleware Order: I’ve ensured that the middleware responsible for parsing the request body is placed before the middleware where I’m trying to access req.body.

Parsing Configuration: body-parser is set up to handle JSON bodies using bodyParser.json(), matching the content type of my requests.

Request Content-Type: The Content-Type header of the incoming request is appropriate for the type expected by body-parser.

Body Data Integrity: I’ve verified that the request contains a body with data; it’s not being sent empty.

Despite these checks, I’m still at a loss as to why req.body remains empty. Any insights or troubleshooting tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

const User = require("../Model/userSchema");

const userExists = async (req, res, next) => {
  const { email, password, confirmPassword } = req.body;

  console.log(req.body);

  console.log("email:", email);
  console.log("password:", password);
  console.log("confirmPassword:", confirmPassword);

  const emailExist = await User.findOne({ email });
  if (emailExist) {
    return res.status(400).send({ message: "Email Id already exists" });
  }

  if (password !== confirmPassword) {
    return res.status(400).send({ message: "Passwords do not match" });
  }

  next();
};

module.exports = userExists;

index.js

const express = require("express");
const dotenv = require("dotenv");
const cors = require("cors");
const connectDB = require("./db/db");
const authRoutes = require("./routes/user");
const bodyParser = require("body-parser");
const multer = require("multer");
const { storage } = require("./config/storage");
const { register } = require("./controllers/user");
const userExists = require("./middleware/userExist");

const app = express();

dotenv.config();

const port = process.env.PORT || 5001;

//middlewares
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
app.use(cors());
const upload = multer({ storage });

//routes
app.use("/api/auth", authRoutes);

//routes with files

app.post("/api/auth/register", userExists, upload.single("file"), register);

connectDB();

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running on http://localhost:${port}`);
});

Note:- I created a userExist middleware to check if a user with the same email ID already exists. If a user with a matching email is found, images will not be uploaded to the cloud. Additionally, if the user’s password and confirmation password do not match, the image will also not be uploaded to the cloud.