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Known Limitations

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      Description — Couchbase Lite JavaScript — known limitations and constraints
      Abstract — This content identifies specific limitations and constraints when using Couchbase Lite JavaScript, including backend compatibility requirements and browser environment restrictions.
      Related Content — Compatibility | Supported Browsers

      Overview

      This page documents known limitations and constraints specific to Couchbase Lite JavaScript that affect deployment and usage in production environments.

      Backend Compatibility

      Does not work with Couchbase Lite Edge Server

      CBL-JS clients cannot connect to Edge Server, which is designed only for native Couchbase Lite platforms (C, Swift, Java, Android, .NET, Objective-C).

      CORS configuration is required for data synchronization using Sync Gateway or Capella App Services — see Prerequisites.

      Browser Environment Constraints

      Multiple browser tabs

      Opening the same database in multiple tabs simultaneously is not recommended and may cause data inconsistencies. The SDK does not provide cross-tab synchronization or locking.

      Private browsing limitations

      Sync behavior may be limited in private/incognito modes:

      • Storage quotas are smaller

      • Data may be cleared when session ends

      • IndexedDB persistence is not guaranteed

      Missing Features (Not Yet Available)

      The following features are planned but not currently available:

      No Peer-to-Peer (P2P) sync

      Direct device-to-device replication not supported; must sync through Sync Gateway or App Services.

      No intra-database sync (dbreplica)

      Cannot replicate between local databases on same device.

      No vector search indexes

      EUCLIDEAN_DISTANCE() and COSINE_DISTANCE() functions work but without index optimization, causing poor performance on large datasets.

      No full-text search (FTS) indexes

      MATCH() function not available; cannot perform efficient text search. See Feature Limitations for workaround options.

      Limited indexing capabilities

      No partial indexes, expression indexes, or multi-property compound indexes.

      Query limitations

      No UNION, INTERSECT, EXCEPT, RIGHT OUTER JOIN, NEST/UNNEST, COLLATE, or EXISTS operators. For complete query limitations, see SQL++ Query Limitations.

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