Cannot overwrite model once compiled Mongoose

The error is occurring because you already have a schema defined, and then you are defining the schema again. Generally what you should do is instantiate the schema once, and then have a global object call it when it needs it.

For example:

user_model.js

var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var Schema = mongoose.Schema;

var userSchema = new Schema({
   name:String,
   email:String,
   password:String,
   phone:Number,
   _enabled:Boolean
});
module.exports = mongoose.model('users', userSchema);          

check.js

var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var User = require('./user_model.js');

var db = mongoose.createConnection('localhost', 'event-db');
db.on('error', console.error.bind(console, 'connection error:'));
var a1= db.once('open',function(){
  User.find({},{},function (err, users) {
    mongoose.connection.close();
    console.log("Username supplied"+username);
    //doSomethingHere 
  })
});

insert.js

var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var User = require('./user_model.js');

mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost/event-db');
var new_user = new User({
    name:req.body.name
  , email: req.body.email
  , password: req.body.password
  , phone: req.body.phone
  , _enabled:false 
});
new_user.save(function(err){
  if(err) console.log(err); 
});

Another reason you might get this error is if you use the same model in different files but your require path has a different case.

For example, in my situation I had require('./models/User') in one file, and then in another file where I needed access to the User model, I had require('./models/user').

I guess the lookup for modules & mongoose is treating it as a different file. Once I made sure the case matched in both it was no longer an issue.