### Author:  [@nickharambee1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nickharambee1)
#### Post date: [19 november 2025 om 22:33 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/trouble-updating-discourse-after-some-time-upgrade-of-postgres-failed/389116/1 "2025-11-19T22:33:48Z")
I haven’t upgraded discourse in quite some time and tried to do so today. In my browser at `admin/update` I get the message that everything is up to date, but it is showing version v2.4.0.beta2 +17 and I understand that the latest version is 3.6.0.beta2.
So I tried updating via terminal using ./launcher rebuild app and the update failed, with the message UPGRADE OF POSTGRES FAILED. I read the [support page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/postgresql-13-update/172563) and followed all instructions there and in similar posts about POSTGRES update issues, but haven’t been able to fix the issue.
I did look at the logs in /var/discourse/shared/standalone/log/var-log/postgres and found repeated error messages, such as this:
`2025-11-19 21:42:13.815 GMT [242] LOG: skipping missing configuration file “/shared/postgres_data/postgresql.auto.conf”`
`2025-11-19 21:42:13.816 UTC [242] FATAL: data directory “/shared/postgres_data” has wrong ownership`
`2025-11-19 21:42:13.816 UTC [242] HINT: The server must be started by the user that owns the data directory.`
One thing I don’t understand is that there is no directory `/shared/postgres_data` - but rather `/shared/standalone/postgres_data.`
The error message from terminal is included below. I’d be grateful for any pointers to get the update working.
Thanks,
Nick
* * *
```plaintext
Success. You can now start the database server using:
/usr/lib/postgresql/13/bin/pg_ctl -D /shared/postgres_data_new -l logfile start
Ign:1
buster-pgdg InRelease
Ign:2
buster/updates InRelease
Err:3
buster-pgdg Release
404 Not Found [IP: 151.101.67.52 80]
Err:4
buster/updates Release
404 Not Found [IP: 151.101.2.132 80]
Ign:5
buster InRelease
Ign:6
buster-updates InRelease
Err:7
buster Release
404 Not Found [IP: 151.101.2.132 80]
Err:8
buster-updates Release
404 Not Found [IP: 151.101.2.132 80]
Get:9 https://deb.nodesource.com/node_15.x buster InRelease [4,584 B]
Reading package lists...
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
The following additional packages will be installed:
postgresql-client-10
Suggested packages:
postgresql-doc-10
The following NEW packages will be installed:
postgresql-10 postgresql-client-10
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 6,441 kB of archives.
After this operation, 30.6 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Err:1
buster-pgdg/main amd64 postgresql-client-10 amd64 10.17-1.pgdg100+1
404 Not Found [IP: 151.101.195.52 80]
Err:2
buster-pgdg/main amd64 postgresql-10 amd64 10.17-1.pgdg100+1
404 Not Found [IP: 151.101.195.52 80]
Stopping PostgreSQL 13 database server: main.
check for "/usr/lib/postgresql/10/bin" failed: No such file or directory
Failure, exiting
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPGRADE OF POSTGRES FAILED
Please visit
for support.
You can run ./launcher start app to restart your app in the meanwhile
FAILED
--------------------
Pups::ExecError: /root/upgrade_postgres failed with return #
Location of failure: /pups/lib/pups/exec_command.rb:112:in `spawn'
exec failed with the params "/root/upgrade_postgres"
9f400ba2cca88f79359496e95027cf26c2d5a3672837c5594793cf723585407b
**FAILED TO BOOTSTRAP** please scroll up and look for earlier error messages, there may be more than one.
./discourse-doctor may help diagnose the problem.
```
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [20 november 2025 om 15:19 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/trouble-updating-discourse-after-some-time-upgrade-of-postgres-failed/389116/2 "2025-11-20T15:19:01Z")
YOu need to rebuild at the command line, twice. See [PostgreSQL 15 update](https://meta.discourse.org/t/postgresql-15-update/349515)
> [@nickharambee1](#):
>
> One thing I don’t understand is that there is no directory `/shared/postgres_data` - but rather `/shared/standalone/postgres_data.`
Hmm. It’s possible that you have a non-standard bind in your `app.yml`. Your OS is almost certainly out of date too. I recommend moving to a new VM and restoring the database there. See [Move a Discourse site to another VPS with rsync](https://meta.discourse.org/t/move-a-discourse-site-to-another-vps-with-rsync/43812).
Don’t copy the database. It’s easier to restore a backup.
---
### Author:  [@nickharambee1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nickharambee1)
#### Post date: [20 november 2025 om 16:27 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/trouble-updating-discourse-after-some-time-upgrade-of-postgres-failed/389116/3 "2025-11-20T16:27:15Z")
Thanks for your reply Jay. OK, I have created a new VM and followed the steps in the article under **Prepare new VPS.** Now I am not sure what to do - do I continue to the steps under **Copy files to new VPS**? I wondering whether I’m doing a fresh install of discourse and then restoring the database from the old installation, or copying the discourse files over from the old installation? I’m thinking that if I just copy over the discourse files from the old VM then the issues might be replicated on the new VM, but probably I am misunderstanding something.
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [20 november 2025 om 16:38 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/trouble-updating-discourse-after-some-time-upgrade-of-postgres-failed/389116/4 "2025-11-20T16:38:59Z")
Since it’s so old, I think I’d recommend just doing a clean install and copying only the backup to the new server.
- backup old site
- `rsync -rav oldsite:/var/discourse/shared/backups /var/discourse/shared/`
- switch DNS to new server
- `./discourse-setup` (get your SMTP values from the old app.yml) on new server
- `./launcher enter app`
- `discourse backup` (this will create the default backup directory with the right permissions)
- `discourse enable_restore`
- `discourse restore` (this will print the available backups)
- copy-paste the restore command
A more complicated version would be to rsync everything except the database like this:
```plaintext
rsync -rav --numeric-ids OLD-IP:/var/discourse/shared/ /var/discourse/shared/ --exclude log --exclude postgres_* --exclude redis_data --exclude letsencrypt --exclude ssl --exclude log --exclude tmp --exclude state
```
---
### Author:  [@nickharambee1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nickharambee1)
#### Post date: [20 november 2025 om 23:00 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/trouble-updating-discourse-after-some-time-upgrade-of-postgres-failed/389116/5 "2025-11-20T23:00:11Z")
Thanks again Jay. I have managed to do a fresh install of discourse and restore the backup from the old VM using your instructions and all seems to be working well. Must remember to update more often!
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [21 november 2025 om 00:56 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/trouble-updating-discourse-after-some-time-upgrade-of-postgres-failed/389116/6 "2025-11-21T00:56:25Z")
Great! That’s awesome. Glad it worked!
If my post was the solution, please click the ✔ so that the topic gets closed.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [21 december 2025 om 00:56 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/trouble-updating-discourse-after-some-time-upgrade-of-postgres-failed/389116/7 "2025-12-21T00:56:50Z")
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