# Tracking and resolving a schema drift cause

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-and-resolving-a-schema-drift-cause/290901>\
**Category:** Self-hosting\
**Created:** [January 8, 2024, 7:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-and-resolving-a-schema-drift-cause/290901 "2024-01-08T19:02:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 10

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**Author:** ![jrack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jrack/32/326934_2.png) [@jrack](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jrack)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 8:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-and-resolving-a-schema-drift-cause/290901/10 "2024-01-08T20:33:18Z")

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Heh yeah all the farm animals escaped the barn a while back so I am trying to get everyone back in the pen. Or at least figure out if its even feasible.

And we [found the missing piece](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-automation/blob/main/db/migrate/20231022224833_update_custom_field_data.rb) looking at the instance file system

Folks had been looking at automate, but on the other envs they had never activated it so it was available in the Plugin list and no schema change had been made. So far from ideal, but the hint for me on this work is to check the repos for all plugins installed even if they are disabled as maybe they were enabled at one point.

We are doing a redeploy removing some of these R&D plugins as well as keeping a much closer eye on plugin /db entries and doing better record keeping there.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-and-resolving-a-schema-drift-cause/290901)._