[Feature] restore backup without creating a "current" backup

[chodthewacko]

I have searched the existing feature requests, both open and closed, to make sure this is not a duplicate request.

• Yes

The feature

Currently, if you restore a backup, it will first make a backup of the current state of the database.
That's really annoying because the main point of restoring a backup is that your current database is screwed up.

I don't need to waste time or disk space making a backup of a database which is screwed up due to my accidentally deleting something/running a job with settings that turned out bad/etc.

I understand the idea of making a backup first before restoring but it really should be optional.

Platform

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

[bo0tzz]

How long is the backup taking for you? The disk space used should be negligible. The reason it works this way is safety, so you can never accidentally lose a good database by restoring over it.

[Raul824]

in case of current backup corruption the backup creation process halts the restore.

[Nest] 2  - 07/20/2026, 7:54:28 PM     LOG [Maintenance:MaintenanceWebsocketRepository] Websocket Connect:    CyWCdxM5t4_ZFRXDAAAD (private)
/usr/lib/postgresql/14/bin/pg_dump exited (1)
[Nest] 2  - 07/20/2026, 7:54:33 PM   ERROR [Maintenance:DatabaseBackupService] Database Backup Failure: Error: /usr/lib/postgresql/14/bin/pg_dump non-zero exit code (1)
pg_dump: error: Dumping the contents of table "face_search" failed: PQgetResult() failed.
pg_dump: error: Error message from server: ERROR:  missing chunk number 1 for toast value 54351 in pg_toast_17209
pg_dump: error: The command was: COPY public.face_search ("faceId", embedding) TO stdout;

[Nest] 2  - 07/20/2026, 7:54:33 PM   ERROR [Maintenance:DatabaseBackupService] Database Restore Failure: Error: /usr/lib/postgresql/14/bin/pg_dump non-zero exit code (1)
pg_dump: error: Dumping the contents of table "face_search" failed: PQgetResult() failed.
pg_dump: error: Error message from server: ERROR:  missing chunk number 1 for toast value 54351 in pg_toast_17209
pg_dump: error: The command was: COPY public.face_search ("faceId", embedding) TO stdout;

[Nest] 2  - 07/20/2026, 7:54:33 PM   ERROR [Maintenance:MaintenanceWorkerService] Encountered error running action: Error: /usr/lib/postgresql/14/bin/pg_dump non-zero exit code (1)
pg_dump: error: Dumping the contents of table "face_search" failed: PQgetResult() failed.
pg_dump: error: Error message from server: ERROR:  missing chunk number 1 for toast value 54351 in pg_toast_17209
pg_dump: error: The command was: COPY public.face_search ("faceId", embedding) TO stdout;

[Nest] 2  - 07/20/2026, 7:59:04 PM     LOG [Maintenance:MaintenanceWebsocketRepository] Websocket Connect:    ZzMMQLW47JKILk8MAAAF (public)
[Nest] 2  - 07/20/2026, 7:59:04 PM     LOG [Maintenance:MaintenanceWebsocketRepository] Websocket Connect:    R3xIn7orzArSdFuuAAAH (public)

[JRTax]

I get the same error when restoring an backup:
Error: /usr/lib/postgresql/18/bin/pg_dump non-zero exit code (1) pg_dump: error: Dumping the contents of table "face_search" failed: PQgetResult() failed. pg_dump: detail: Error message from server: ERROR: missing chunk number 0 for toast value 35937 in pg_toast_17374 pg_dump: detail: Command was: COPY public.face_search ("faceId", embedding) TO stdout;

[Raul824]

command to restore the backup manually.

gunzip -c immich-db-backup-20260707T020000-v3.0.1-pg14.17.sql.gz | podman exec -i immich_postgres psql -U postgres -d immich

[JRTax]

Do you perhaps have an idea where I can use this command in TrueNAS?