DB Upgrade Error

[godsgood33]

I have searched the existing issues, both open and closed, to make sure this is not a duplicate report.

• Yes

The bug

I attempted to upgrade my DB before upgrading the main Immich container image. When the DB container started the logs show the following, just constantly repeating.

PostgreSQL Database directory appears to contain a database; Skipping initialization
/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh: line 386: exec: postgres: not found
Using HDD storage

I copied the container image from the docker-compose file ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:14-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0. I was previously working with ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:15-vectorchord0.3.0-pgvectors0.2.0. If I revert back to the previous DB image it works again.

The OS that Immich Server is running on

Unraid

Version of Immich Server

v1.144.1+

Version of Immich Mobile App

na

Platform with the issue

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

Device make and model

No response

Your docker-compose.yml content

don't use one

Your .env content

don't use one

Reproduction steps

1. Pull pgsql image
2. Change image on container

Relevant log output

PostgreSQL Database directory appears to contain a database; Skipping initialization
/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh: line 386: exec: postgres: not found

Using HDD storage

Additional information

No response

[mmomjian]

You can't go from 15 to 14 like that. You can use ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:15-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0

[nirwanah]

If you deployed Immich via the TrueNAS Apps system and later migrate to a standalone Docker/Portainer stack using the official docker-compose example, you can hit a database mismatch.

In my case, the old TrueNAS deployment had already created a PostgreSQL 15 data directory, but the compose example I started from used an Immich Postgres image tagged for PostgreSQL 14. You can’t run a PG14 container against a PG15 data directory, so you must switch the database image to a PG15-compatible Immich Postgres image.

After switching to PG15, Immich still failed with:

“The database currently has VectorChord 0.5.3 activated, but the Postgres instance only has 0.4.3 available.”

That meant I had also picked a PG15 image that shipped VectorChord 0.4.3, which is a downgrade compared to what my DB had already activated (0.5.3). The fix was to use a PG15 image that includes VectorChord 0.5.3, e.g.:

image: ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:15-vectorchord0.5.3

Once the Postgres major version and the VectorChord version matched what was already in the DB, Immich started normally. Hope this helps anyone running into the same issue.