Users are reporting a PG::UndefinedTable error regarding the missing translation_overrides relation during Discourse database migrations. jamesarobbo initially encountered this issue while attempting to run migrations on a production Heroku setup, noting that a similar problem was reportedly fixed previously. zogstrip suggested dropping and recreating the database, but jamesarobbo clarified that this is a production environment.
marcosbc identified the issue as a known problem affecting fresh startups in Kubernetes clusters and vanilla Discourse launcher setups. They provided logs showing the error occurring during rake db:migrate when the system attempts to query the translation_overrides table before it is fully established.
Eric_Keller provided a definitive root cause for automated restore pipelines: a version mismatch between the restored database backup and the current container code. The latest code references the translation_overrides model, but the older backup does not contain this table. The suggested solution is to rebuild the application first to create the necessary schema from scratch, and then perform the restore. This approach allows Discourse’s built-in restore process to properly handle the database structure, avoiding the migration conflict.
I have cloned master and in trying to run migrations i get this error:
ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid: PG::UndefinedTable: ERROR: relation “translation_overrides” does not exist
I see that a topic was created for this last November and seemingly fixed so i’m wondering what coudl be the cause?
ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid: PG::UndefinedTable: ERROR: relation "translation_overrides" does not exist
remote: LINE 5: WHERE a.attrelid = '"translation_overrides"':...
remote: ^
remote: : SELECT a.attname, format_type(a.atttypid, a.atttypmod),
remote: pg_get_expr(d.adbin, d.adrelid), a.attnotnull, a.atttypid, a.atttypmod
remote: FROM pg_attribute a LEFT JOIN pg_attrdef d
remote: ON a.attrelid = d.adrelid AND a.attnum = d.adnum
remote: WHERE a.attrelid = '"translation_overrides"'::regclass
remote: AND a.attnum > 0 AND NOT a.attisdropped
remote: ORDER BY a.attnum
PG::UndefinedTable: ERROR: relation "translation_overrides" does not exist
remote: LINE 5: WHERE a.attrelid = '"translation_overrides"':...
production but getting it to run on heroku (i realise that heroku is not the ‘supported’, ‘recommended’ setup ). despite that, do you have any ideas? thanks a lot
$ ./launcher rebuild app
...
I, [2021-05-27T10:53:27.612150 #1] INFO -- : > cd /var/www/discourse && su discourse -c 'bundle exec rake plugin:pull_compatible_all'
I, [2021-05-27T10:53:30.072954 #1] INFO -- : docker_manager is already at latest compatible version
I, [2021-05-27T10:53:30.073194 #1] INFO -- : > cd /var/www/discourse && su discourse -c 'bundle exec rake db:migrate'
2021-05-27 10:53:32.977 UTC [4354] discourse@discourse ERROR: relation "translation_overrides" does not exist at character 454
2021-05-27 10:53:32.977 UTC [4354] discourse@discourse STATEMENT: SELECT a.attname, format_type(a.atttypid, a.atttypmod),
pg_get_expr(d.adbin, d.adrelid), a.attnotnull, a.atttypid, a.atttypmod,
c.collname, col_description(a.attrelid, a.attnum) AS comment
FROM pg_attribute a
LEFT JOIN pg_attrdef d ON a.attrelid = d.adrelid AND a.attnum = d.adnum
LEFT JOIN pg_type t ON a.atttypid = t.oid
LEFT JOIN pg_collation c ON a.attcollation = c.oid AND a.attcollation <> t.typcollation
WHERE a.attrelid = '"translation_overrides"'::regclass
AND a.attnum > 0 AND NOT a.attisdropped
ORDER BY a.attnum
Warning: no type cast defined for type "name" with oid 19. Please cast this type explicitly to TEXT to be safe for future changes.
> Seeding theme and color schemes
I, [2021-05-27T10:53:49.976589 #1] INFO -- : == 20000225050318 AddSchemaMigrationDetails: migrating ========================
...
이 문제는 간단한 discourse_docker 공식 설치 환경에서도 발생했습니다. 매주 아침마다 파이프라인을 통해 자동 복구 테스트를 수행하고 있었는데, 실패한 파이프라인에 유사한 오류가 갑자기 나타났습니다.
I, [2026-05-20T07:59:01.413128 #1] INFO -- : > cd /var/www/discourse && su discourse -c 'bundle
exec rake db:migrate'
2026-05-20 07:59:09.214 UTC [1576] discourse@discourse ERROR: relation "translation_overrides" does not exist at character 523
2026-05-20 07:59:09.214 UTC [1576] discourse@discourse STATEMENT: SELECT a.attname, format_type(a.atttypid, a.atttypmod),
pg_get_expr(d.adbin, d.adrelid), a.attnotnull, a.atttypid, a.atttypmod,
c.collname, col_description(a.attrelid, a.attnum) AS comment,
attidentity AS identity,
attgenerated as attgenerated
FROM pg_attribute a
LEFT JOIN pg_attrdef d ON a.attrelid = d.adrelid AND a.attnum = d.adnum
LEFT JOIN pg_type t ON a.atttypid = t.oid
LEFT JOIN pg_collation c ON a.attcollation = c.oid AND a.attcollation <> t.typcollation
WHERE a.attrelid = '"translation_overrides"'::regclass
AND a.attnum > 0 AND NOT a.attisdropped
ORDER BY a.attnum
2026-05-20 07:59:13.167 UTC [1627] discourse@discourse ERROR: schema "discourse_functions" already exists
2026-05-20 07:59:13.167 UTC [1627] discourse@discourse STATEMENT: CREATE SCHEMA discourse_functions;
psql:/var/www/discourse/db/structure.sql:16: ERROR: schema "discourse_functions" already exists
rake aborted!
근본 원인은 복구된 백업과 컨테이너 코드 간의 버전 불일치였습니다.
최신 Discourse 코드에는 translation_overrides를 참조하는 모델이 있지만, 프로덕션 데이터베이스(백업)는 이 테이블이 아직 존재하지 않거나 다른 이름으로 존재하는 이전 버전입니다.
제 경우 해결책은 먼저 재빌드(스키마를 처음부터 생성)한 다음 백업을 복구하는 것이었습니다. 복구 프로세스는 데이터베이스를 적절히 삭제하고 다시 생성하는 Discourse의 내장 복구 기능을 사용합니다.