Downgrading / reverting to a lower version

[ts678]

@JonMikelV

Great info - and thanks for the link. I’ve updated the main post with all the database upgrade versions to date.

And more could be said, but there might be a shift in emphasis, maybe aimed primarily at those using Beta.

There’s now a recent safety recommendation to consider about how to do downgrades. While Canary users should be aware that Canary is a risk (even risky downgrades may help them), what should other users do? Canary moves in smaller quicker steps, so downgrade is easier, whereas a Beta-to-Beta downgrade is a lot.

Having this article provide steps for the recommendation below would be an approach. I’ve never been that comfortable with people editing databases manually, but there’s no programmed method - and no test suite. One reason for discomfort is that while structure changes are obvious, changed structure usages are not… Someday there might also be a big-time database redesign for performance, reliability, logging, whatever…

So here’s the conversation at Any progress in new beta? but I don’t know if “bulletproof” changed the reply:

@gianlucabertaina

Or, another nice possibility would be: is there a way to safely test new canaries with my existing backup, without messing it, and with a bulletproof way to reverting to the old database?

@kenkendk

When you run a new version, Duplicati will upgrade the database as you have discovered. We do not currently have any safe way to roll back the version (it would require a test suite that could verify things worked correctly after downgrading).

Instead, Duplicati makes a copy of the database prior to upgrading it. You can then “switch back” by manually renaming the databases, but this will of course not contain anything you did with the new version.