MIGRATION

Migration Guide: PostgreSQL to SQLite

Questarr v1.1 moved from PostgreSQL to SQLite to simplify deployment and reduce resource usage. This guide is for operators still running a pre-v1.1 PostgreSQL installation who need to bring that data across.

The migration tooling was removed in v1.5.0. scripts/pg-to-sqlite.ts and docker-compose.migrate.yml no longer ship with Questarr, because the schema has moved far enough since v1.1 that the tool only knew about 8 of the project’s tables and would silently skip the rest. It is still available from the v1.4.2 release, which is the supported way to run this migration — see below.

Not to be confused with the optional Postgres backend. Questarr can now also be run on PostgreSQL as an opt-in alternative to the SQLite default (from v1.5.0; see docs/DATABASE.md). That is a different thing entirely, and this guide does not apply to it. There is no automated path from that backend back to SQLite.

Compatibility

The archived tool handles Questarr versions v1.0.0 through v1.1, including the table renames, column renames and missing columns from that era. It does not understand any table added since, so do not point it at a database from a later version.

Migration steps

Run this against the v1.4.2 release. Pinning matters: the tool is not present in latest, and latest’s schema is far ahead of what it understands.

1. Stop the current application:

   docker compose -p <your-original-project-name> down app
   

   Pass -p here too, for the same reason it is needed in step 3 below: if your deployment used a custom project name, omitting it targets a different project and leaves your app running, writing to the database while the migration reads it. Step 2 explains how to find the name. If you never set one, drop the flag.

2. Save the compose file below as docker-compose.migrate.yml.

   It is reproduced here in full, pinned to v1.4.2, because the file no longer exists on the default branch:

   services:
     # Temporary Postgres service to access old data
     db:
       image: postgres:16-alpine
       environment:
         - POSTGRES_USER=postgres
         - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=password
         - POSTGRES_DB=questarr
       volumes:
         - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
       healthcheck:
         test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U postgres"]
         interval: 10s
         timeout: 5s
         retries: 5
   
     # The migrator service (your app)
     migrator:
       image: ghcr.io/doezer/questarr:v1.4.2
       environment:
         - NODE_ENV=production
         - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:password@db:5432/questarr
         # Path where the SQLite DB will be created inside the container
         - SQLITE_DB_PATH=/app/data/sqlite.db
       volumes:
         # Map a local 'data' folder to receive the migrated database
         - ./data:/app/data
       depends_on:
         db:
           condition: service_healthy
       # Chain: 1. Push schema to SQLite, 2. Run the PG->SQLite migration script
       command: sh -c "node dist/server/run-migrations.js && node dist/scripts/pg-to-sqlite.js"
   
   volumes:
     postgres_data:
   

   This is the archived file verbatim, with only the image tag changed from latest to v1.4.2.

   Run it under your original Compose project name, or it will create a brand-new empty postgres_data volume instead of reusing yours. Compose namespaces volumes as <project>_<volume>, and the project name comes from the first of these that is set: -p on the command line, COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME, a top-level name: in the compose file, and only then the directory name. Running from the same directory reproduces just that last, default case. If your original deployment set any of the others, pass it explicitly:

   docker compose -p <your-original-project-name> -f docker-compose.migrate.yml up --abort-on-container-exit
   

   docker volume ls | grep postgres_data shows the existing volume’s full name; the part before _postgres_data is the project name to use.

   Set DATABASE_URL to your original credentials and database name. This is the line that matters, and it is easy to get wrong: the POSTGRES_USER / POSTGRES_PASSWORD / POSTGRES_DB variables on the db service only take effect when Postgres initializes an empty data directory. Against your existing volume they do nothing — the role, password and database name already stored there win. Editing them while leaving DATABASE_URL at the sample postgresql://postgres:password@db:5432/questarr is precisely the mistake that produces an empty result, because the migrator only reads DATABASE_URL.

3. Run the migration, with the same project name as step 1:

   docker compose -p <your-original-project-name> -f docker-compose.migrate.yml up --abort-on-container-exit
   

4. Verify before starting Questarr. Do not trust the exit status: the archived script catches failures per table, logs them, and still prints Migration completed. at the end. A wrong DATABASE_URL therefore looks like a clean run while producing an empty or partial database.

   Read the --- Migration Summary --- table it prints and confirm the row counts match your expectations, and that no line reads ❌ Failed to migrate table or ⚠️ Integrity Check Failed. Then spot-check the result directly:

   sqlite3 ./data/sqlite.db "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM games; SELECT COUNT(*) FROM users;"
   

   Only once that looks right, start Questarr normally on the current release. Your data now lives in ./data/sqlite.db.

Source

The tool as it last shipped, for inspection or manual use:

• scripts/pg-to-sqlite.ts at v1.4.2
• docker-compose.migrate.yml at v1.4.2

These are tag permalinks and will keep resolving after the files leave the default branch.

Credential note — applies to older tags, not v1.4.2. In v1.1.0–v1.3.1 this script printed the full DATABASE_URL, credentials included, before connecting. That was fixed in v1.4.0, so the v1.4.2 build this guide pins logs only a constant Connecting to Postgres and nothing derived from the URL. Pinning v1.4.2 therefore avoids the exposure — but if you already ran the migration on an affected tag and kept the logs, rotate that Postgres password. See §8 of SECRETS.md.