I have searched the existing issues, both open and closed, to make sure this is not a duplicate report.
The bug
Immich is working fine on laptop1. I copy all the data to laptop2 along with backup zips. on laptop2, a new immich instance recognises that backup is present and offers to restore it. but the restore always fails. I have docker on win11 on both laptops.
Docker log says the following. But i am trying to restore even before creating the 1st user (who is admin) :
[Nest] 7 - 04/10/2026, 11:05:12 AM ERROR [Maintenance:DatabaseBackupService~anzvvzae] Database Restore Failure: Error: Server health check failed, no admin exists.
[Nest] 7 - 04/10/2026, 11:05:12 AM ERROR [Maintenance:MaintenanceWorkerService~anzvvzae] Encountered error running action: Error: Server health check failed, no admin exists.
The OS that Immich Server is running on
Win11
Version of Immich Server
2.7.3
Version of Immich Mobile App
2.7.3
Platform with the issue
Device make and model
No response
Your docker-compose.yml content
#
# WARNING: To install Immich, follow our guide: https://docs.immich.app/install/docker-compose
#
# Make sure to use the docker-compose.yml of the current release:
#
# https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml
#
# The compose file on main may not be compatible with the latest release.
name: immich
services:
immich-server:
container_name: immich_server
image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
# extends:
# file: hwaccel.transcoding.yml
# service: cpu # set to one of [nvenc, quicksync, rkmpp, vaapi, vaapi-wsl] for accelerated transcoding
volumes:
# Do not edit the next line. If you want to change the media storage location on your system, edit the value of UPLOAD_LOCATION in the .env file
- ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/data
# - "D:/DockerDataNBU/NextCloud/google-123456:/ext/media" # import path in Windows system.
# - ${EXT_MEDIA_LOCATION}:/ext/media # import path in Windows system.
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
env_file:
- .env
ports:
- '2000:2283'
depends_on:
- redis
- database
restart: always
healthcheck:
disable: false
immich-machine-learning:
container_name: immich_machine_learning
# For hardware acceleration, add one of -[armnn, cuda, rocm, openvino, rknn] to the image tag.
# Example tag: ${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}-cuda
image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
# extends: # uncomment this section for hardware acceleration - see https://docs.immich.app/features/ml-hardware-acceleration
# file: hwaccel.ml.yml
# service: cpu # set to one of [armnn, cuda, rocm, openvino, openvino-wsl, rknn] for accelerated inference - use the `-wsl` version for WSL2 where applicable
volumes:
- model-cache:/cache
env_file:
- .env
restart: always
healthcheck:
disable: false
redis:
container_name: immich_redis
image: docker.io/valkey/valkey:9@sha256:546304417feac0874c3dd576e0952c6bb8f06bb4093ea0c9ca303c73cf458f63
healthcheck:
test: redis-cli ping || exit 1
restart: always
database:
container_name: immich_postgres
image: ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:14-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0@sha256:bcf63357191b76a916ae5eb93464d65c07511da41e3bf7a8416db519b40b1c23
environment:
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
POSTGRES_USER: ${DB_USERNAME}
POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_DATABASE_NAME}
POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: '--data-checksums'
# Uncomment the DB_STORAGE_TYPE: 'HDD' var if your database isn't stored on SSDs
DB_STORAGE_TYPE: 'HDD'
volumes:
# Do not edit the next line. If you want to change the database storage location on your system, edit the value of DB_DATA_LOCATION in the .env file
- ${DB_DATA_LOCATION}:/var/lib/postgresql/data
shm_size: 128mb
restart: always
healthcheck:
disable: false
volumes:
model-cache:
postgres_data:Your .env content
# You can find documentation for all the supported env variables at https://docs.immich.app/install/environment-variables
# The location where your uploaded files are stored. Backups are auto created. Restore means pointing your docker-compose file to the below location. Change the location as per your needs. Then "docker compose up" and do a restore when the new server is available.
UPLOAD_LOCATION=D:/Immich/library
# The location where your database files are stored. Network shares are not supported for the database
DB_DATA_LOCATION=postgres_data
# The location where your external media files are stored.
# EXT_MEDIA_LOCATION=D:\DockerDataNBU\NextCloud\google-123456
# To set a timezone, uncomment the next line and change Etc/UTC to a TZ identifier from this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones#List
# TZ=Etc/UTC
# The Immich version to use. You can pin this to a specific version like "v2.1.0"
IMMICH_VERSION=v2
# Connection secret for postgres. You should change it to a random password
# Please use only the characters `A-Za-z0-9`, without special characters or spaces
DB_PASSWORD=postgres
# The values below this line do not need to be changed
###################################################################################
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_DATABASE_NAME=immich
Reproduction steps
-
Immich is working fine on laptop1.
-
I copy all the data to laptop2 along with backup zips.
-
On laptop2, a new immich instance recognises that backup is present and offers to restore it.
-
But the restore always fails.
I have docker on win11 on both laptops.
Docker log says the following. But i am trying to restore even before creating the 1st user (who is admin) :
[Nest] 7 - 04/10/2026, 11:05:12 AM ERROR [Maintenance:DatabaseBackupService~anzvvzae] Database Restore Failure: Error: Server health check failed, no admin exists.
[Nest] 7 - 04/10/2026, 11:05:12 AM ERROR [Maintenance:MaintenanceWorkerService~anzvvzae] Encountered error running action: Error: Server health check failed, no admin exists.
Relevant log output
Additional information
No response
I have searched the existing issues, both open and closed, to make sure this is not a duplicate report.
The bug
Immich is working fine on laptop1. I copy all the data to laptop2 along with backup zips. on laptop2, a new immich instance recognises that backup is present and offers to restore it. but the restore always fails. I have docker on win11 on both laptops.
Docker log says the following. But i am trying to restore even before creating the 1st user (who is admin) :
[Nest] 7 - 04/10/2026, 11:05:12 AM ERROR [Maintenance:DatabaseBackupService~anzvvzae] Database Restore Failure: Error: Server health check failed, no admin exists.
[Nest] 7 - 04/10/2026, 11:05:12 AM ERROR [Maintenance:MaintenanceWorkerService~anzvvzae] Encountered error running action: Error: Server health check failed, no admin exists.
The OS that Immich Server is running on
Win11
Version of Immich Server
2.7.3
Version of Immich Mobile App
2.7.3
Platform with the issue
Device make and model
No response
Your docker-compose.yml content
Your .env content
Reproduction steps
Immich is working fine on laptop1.
I copy all the data to laptop2 along with backup zips.
On laptop2, a new immich instance recognises that backup is present and offers to restore it.
But the restore always fails.
I have docker on win11 on both laptops.
Docker log says the following. But i am trying to restore even before creating the 1st user (who is admin) :
[Nest] 7 - 04/10/2026, 11:05:12 AM ERROR [Maintenance:DatabaseBackupService~anzvvzae] Database Restore Failure: Error: Server health check failed, no admin exists.
[Nest] 7 - 04/10/2026, 11:05:12 AM ERROR [Maintenance:MaintenanceWorkerService~anzvvzae] Encountered error running action: Error: Server health check failed, no admin exists.
Relevant log output
Additional information
No response