Help restoring multiple Postgres databases to latest state after accidental volume swaps
ernestojaviern
PROOP

13 days ago

Hi, I need urgent help. While trying to recover my "web" service, I accidentally used "Swap Volume" on all my Postgres databases (Umayor, PRUEBA, Mitigo-master), leaving them pointing to wrong/empty volumes. I then ran several restores, and now "Umayor" won't stay online: it boots with data present ("PostgreSQL Database directory appears to contain a database; Skipping initialization") but crashes with password authentication failed for user "postgres" and data directory lock file is invalid / could not open postmaster.pid.

What I need: restore my databases (especially Umayor) to the most recent stable state you can recover — I don't need an exact date, just the latest consistent version available. PITR was OFF, and my most recent manual backup is 2026-06-22 20:24 (229 MB).

Please help me: (1) identify the volume/backup with my newest usable data, (2) reconnect it to the correct service, and (3) reset the postgres role password so the service stays online.

Project: 3c6d9775-574f-42db-bebb-6ea7caa50bfd

Services: Umayor, PRUEBA, Mitigo-master, web

Solved$20 Bounty

Pinned Solution

0x5b62656e5d
MODERATOR

12 days ago

Try this to fix the auth errors:

  1. Click into your database service and go to the console tab
  2. Run this command: sed -i 's/host all all all scram-sha-256/host all all ::\/0 trust/' /var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata/pg_hba.conf (This will bypass user authentication)
  3. Redeploy your database
  4. SSH again, and run the command psql
  5. Run ALTER USER postgres with password '<PASSWORD>'; where <PASSWORD> is the value of the variable PGPASSWORD in your Railway dashboard
  6. Type exit
  7. Run sed -i 's/host all all ::\/0 trust/host all all all scram-sha-256/' /var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata/pg_hba.conf (This will re-enable user authentication)
  8. Redeploy your database

1 Replies

Railway
BOT

13 days ago

This thread has been opened as a public bounty so the community can help solve it. The thread and any further activity are now visible to everyone.

Status changed to Open Railway • 13 days ago

0x5b62656e5d
MODERATOR

12 days ago

Try this to fix the auth errors:

  1. Click into your database service and go to the console tab
  2. Run this command: sed -i 's/host all all all scram-sha-256/host all all ::\/0 trust/' /var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata/pg_hba.conf (This will bypass user authentication)
  3. Redeploy your database
  4. SSH again, and run the command psql
  5. Run ALTER USER postgres with password '<PASSWORD>'; where <PASSWORD> is the value of the variable PGPASSWORD in your Railway dashboard
  6. Type exit
  7. Run sed -i 's/host all all ::\/0 trust/host all all all scram-sha-256/' /var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata/pg_hba.conf (This will re-enable user authentication)
  8. Redeploy your database

Status changed to Solved ernestojaviern • 12 days ago

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