Repository navigation
Documentation - Postgres Backup/Restore Steps are incomplete #8001
Description
Activity
Even if we don't know the exact steps right now. This is crucial to be ware of and should at least be noted in the docs. Probably also a note to test if you can restore your backups and get an instance running off it.
This is the second instance backup of mine that's now failing due to docs/issues in the stack(first is mariadb crashing while ingesting a dump) and I can't imagine many hobby users would be aware of the role issue in postgres. I'm honestly surprised not to see more complains about loss of data while trying to restore a backup.
Confirmed gap.
admin_manual/maintenance/backup.rstline 67 usespg_dumpwithout--no-owner, so the dump includesOWNER TO <role>statements.admin_manual/maintenance/restore.rsthas no step to pre-create the database role, so restoring to a new server (where the role doesn't exist) fails withrole "oc_xxx" does not exist.Two ways to fix this in the docs:
- Add
--no-ownerto thepg_dumpcommand — the simplest fix, avoids the role dependency entirely. - Add a step to dump roles separately with
pg_dumpall --globals-onlyand restore them before importing the database dump.
Option 1 is simpler and less error-prone for most users.
- Add
- added a commit that references this issue
on Oct 9, 2026
Summary
I was migrating my docker-based nextcloud instance to new hardware and found that the documentation was missing some steps to backup and restore the user that owns the nextcloud tables, which is required to restore the nextcloud database.
My instance details
The problem
docker-compose exec nextcloud-db pg_dump nextcloud -U nextcloud > /tmp/nc-db.dumpdocker-compose exec nextcloud-db psql -U nextcloud -d nextcloud -f nc-db.dumprole "oc_jeff4" does not existafter most of the commands, due to tailingOWNER TTO oc_jeff4statements when the restoration script is creating tables.My solution:
I'm not an advanced postgres user and there is probably a better way to do it. Seems like
pg_dumpall -U nextcloud -v --globals-only > /path/to/useraccts.sqlis the best way to do this via the command line (like the rest of the backup/restore docs) but it looks like this will dump all the users and some filtering may be needed? E.g. should I parse this list down to only include my oc_jeff4 user?