Unity not starting node.js server for autoconnecting profiler

From what I understand, unity is supposed to create a node.js server on port 54998 for webgl content to autoconnect to its profiler. However I'm currently unable to connect webgl content to my unity profiler normally. It only works right after I build and run the project, but if I restart Unity the profiler no longer works. I don't want to have to rebuild the entire project just to connect the profiler to my latest build.

Why is Unity not creating the node.js server until I build a project???