Syncthing disk image is malformed error?

Support
1

I have been having some issues with Syncthing since the migration. I am running v2.0.8 on an Unraid server.

For a few days, I would get the red can’t communicate error on the GUI suggesting refresh, the browser, restart syncthing or try another browser. (apologies I don’t have a screen shot of the exact error, as my GUI is no longer accessible!)

Since this morning, I can’t access the GUI and in the logs, I just get the below error every couple of seconds!!

Any ideas, or help would be very appreciated.

Many thanks

2025-09-12 09:01:34 INF syncthing v2.0.8 “Hafnium Hornet” (go1.24.7 linux-amd64) root@buildkitsandbox 2025-09-08 08:21:19 UTC [modernc-sqlite, noupgrade] (log.pkg=main) 2025-09-12 09:01:34 INF Calculated our device ID (device=XXXX log.pkg=syncthing) 2025-09-12 09:01:34 INF Measured hashing performance (perf=“1919.39 MB/s” log.pkg=syncthing) 2025-09-12 09:01:34 ERR Database error when getting previous version (error=“getkv: database disk image is malformed (11)” log.pkg=syncthing) 2025-09-12 09:01:34 INF Exiting (log.pkg=syncthing)

2

I’m not sure what’s going on here but my first idea is to shut down Syncthing, move the database and start it up again.

If you have a lot of Folders or files, it might take a while to rebuild.

3

Thank you for your reply. That does make sense. I do have a lot of files and Folders it is syncing to 4 other devices! I am happy to give this a try though and not bothered how long it will take.How do I move the database?

Would I then have to re-create shares etc. ?

Many thanks

4

The configuration file isn’t affected.

I’m on mobile but the database is normally in Syncthing’s configuration directory.

5

Thank you.

This is the directory structure I have for syncthing:

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there doesn’t appear to be a config directory?

As it has recently migrated, It looks like I have 2 database folders? Do I just delete both?

I did some googling, and the command to do this is:

syncthing –reset-database

But If I do this from the unraid CLI, I just get unkown command. With syncthing shutdown, I am not able to acess it’s CLI (there is no option) ?

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Really stumped, and don’t want to do the wrong thing, as it would be a lot of work starting from scratch!

6

That’s Syncthing’s home directory. The configuration is in the config.xml file. The database is in the index directory. You can shut down Syncthing and rename that directory.

7

Thank you. Should I rename both index folders?

index-v0.14.0.db-migrated

index-v2

8

I bit the bullet and renamed both. All seems to be back up and scanning now. All devices and folder shares are all connected. So a good start :slight_smile: .

9

I would just like to suggest to make sure that your hardware is fine (e.g. check SMART, etc.).

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10

Yeah that, or if there are filesystem shenanigans going on with unraid, and/or the modernc build it’s running might be less than awesome in combination with the above.

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11

Thank you both. Yes, all disks are all good with Smart. So far so good with the re-indexing :crossed_fingers:

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12

Sorry for that – maybe I shouldn’t be on the forum on my phone :slight_smile: .

The pre-migration index database is the one that ends in “migrated”. The other is the live index.

13

No problem :slight_smile: I really appreciate your help.

It’s still re-building, think it might take awhile….

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14

Finally…. All synced again. It was a little odd, as one of the shares which were pretty much in-sync before the upgrade, had to re-sync 350+ GB of data, which seemed a lot slower than before! But all is back working again :slight_smile:

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15

Sometimes Syncthing will look like it’s syncing files, when it’s actually syncing indexes.

I’m happy that things are working!

16

Yes, that’s true. It did literally take days, but I am happy too that it is all back working. Thank you for your help.

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17

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