Your Postgres service's Credentials tab (open the Postgres service, go to the Database view, then Credentials) lets you safely regenerate the password while keeping the environment variables in sync, which is exactly the fix for a manual rotation that went out of sync. After regenerating, redeploy any service that references the password variables.

my Postgres Database connection keeps having wheel of death and not connecting so I can not regerate password

You're not able to access the console tab of your database?

Is it online?

yes shows online but the database connection just spins

Are you able to access the console tab when you click on your service?

Try this:

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

If the console tab isn't accessible, you can try setting your start command to sleep infinity, and then follow the steps 0x5b62656e5d provided.

I Still Need Help

Thanks. The Credentials tab is not visible for me.

Current situation:

• Postgres service is online.
• Postgres logs show: database system is ready to accept connections.
• The app logs show: FATAL: password authentication failed for user "postgres".
• The Database tab just spins at “Attempting to connect to the database…”.
• The Console tab fails with WebSocket connection failed.
• I cannot access psql through the Railway UI.
• I do not want to delete the database, delete the volume, or restore over current data.

Please either:

1. Regenerate/resynchronise the Postgres credentials from Railway’s side, or
2. Provide exact step-by-step instructions for this specific UI/service to access the Credentials tab, or
3. Confirm the safe recovery procedure using the pg_hba.conf trust method, including how to proceed when the Console tab is inaccessible.

Project: RedPoint Social Hub

Service: Postgres

Please confirm the safest non-destructive recovery path.

Try setting your start command to sleep infinity then see if you're able to access the console from the dashboard.

I followed the suggested workaround.

I set the Postgres Custom Start Command to:

sleep infinity

Then I redeployed the Postgres service.

However, the Console still fails with:

WebSocket connection failed

Connection lost

Disconnected

I cannot access a shell to run the pg_hba.conf command.

I have reverted the Postgres Custom Start Command back to blank/default and redeployed the database so it is running normally again.

Please provide the next recovery step, or reset/resynchronise the Postgres credentials from Railway’s side.

We need to fix:

FATAL: password authentication failed for user "postgres"

without deleting the database, deleting the volume, or restoring over current data.