MongoDB Atlas Device Sync (Realm) with expo in 2025

[joris1995]

Hi! I’m migrating my existing react-native project into Expo. I am using Realm 11 and @realm/react 0.4.2. It will compile, but gives me a runtime error: ‘Missing Realm Constructor, Did you run pod-install?’. We have installed our dependencies using expo prebuild and later also by hand in our iOS directory.

I know realm/device sync is deprecated, and we are moving away from it, but it would be really helpful for my project to be able to migrate our existing realm setup into our new expo-managed app for some time.

The started kit that MongoDB provides seems dated and does not include any documentation.

My question: Does anyone have recent experience in bringing Realm into expo projects, and/or can anyone help me with fixing this error?

[kraenhansen]

I suspect you're hitting #6933 (comment)

[joris1995]

@kraenhansen I think I indeed am, however the fix suggested in #6933 does not solve my problem. Could continue the conversation here, or in the other issue?

[brianomchugh]

Expo Module Config documentation
I was taking a quick look and the fix MIGHT be as easy as adding a expo-module.config.json to the project root.

I attempted to create the file and patch, but I still see the same error (on Expo 52)... I am happy to continue the conversation here if anyone has any tips.