---
name: immich-pgvectors-drop-database-panic
description: "Never DROP DATABASE on immich's postgres image — pgvecto.rs worker PANICs and crashes postgres; use pg_dump --clean --if-exists instead"
metadata: 
  node_type: memory
  type: project
  originSessionId: 85355980-5e4f-4f90-b1ca-d0e4fe82f04b
---

On immich's DB image (ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:14-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0), `DROP DATABASE` destabilises the legacy pgvecto.rs (`vectors`) background worker: it loops on "IPC connection is closed unexpected" until `PANIC: ERRORDATA_STACK_SIZE exceeded` → postgres aborts (signal 6) → the app never reconverges. Per-table `DROP TABLE` is safe; only `DROP DATABASE` triggers it.

**Why:** confirmed live in dev-immich and in CI build 225 DB-service logs during the immich backup/restore fix (PR #2, June 2026).

**How to apply:** for a true point-in-time restore without dropping the DB, back up with `pg_dump --clean --if-exists` (per-object DROP+recreate) and on restore rewrite pg_dump's `set_config('search_path', '', false)` to `'public, pg_catalog', true` (VectorChord types unresolvable otherwise — same rewrite as docs.immich.app/administration/backup-and-restore). See the recipe's pg_backup.sh. Related: [[shared-recipe-checkout-race]], [[drone-sqlite-log-extraction]]