Can't run immich because PSQL broke itself

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1

Trying to run immich, and psql seems to break itself:

$ journalctl -xeu postgresql
Oct 04 09:20:15 host postgres[234150]: [234150] STATEMENT:  SELECT idx_status FROM pg_vector_index_stat WHERE indexname = $1
Oct 04 09:20:21 host postgres[234236]: [234236] ERROR:  pgvecto.rs: The extension is upgraded so all index files are outdated.
Oct 04 09:20:21 host postgres[234236]:         ADVICE: Delete all index files. Please read `https://docs.pgvecto.rs/admin/upgrading.html`
O

Based on Immich 1.95.1 Upgrade - Postgresql Errors · Issue #7327 · immich-app/immich · GitHub and psql’s own docs (!) I’m supposed to run SELECT pgvectors_upgrade();

$ sudo psql -U postgres -c 'SELECT pgvectors_upgrade();'
psql: error: connection to server on socket "/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432" failed: FATAL:  Peer authentication failed for user "postgres"

$ sudo -u postgres psql -c 'SELECT pgvectors_upgrade();'
ERROR:  function pgvectors_upgrade() does not exist
LINE 1: SELECT pgvectors_upgrade();
               ^
HINT:  No function matches the given name and argument types. You might need to add explicit type casts.

My immich-related config is simply

  services = {
    immich = {
      enable = true;
      host = "0.0.0.0";
      openFirewall = true;
    };
  };
2

So I was running it against the wrong db, but still this doesn’t fix anything.

$ sudo -u postgres psql -d immich -c 'SELECT pgvectors_upgrade();'
 pgvectors_upgrade 
-------------------
 
(1 row)

$ journalctl -xeu postgresql
Oct 04 09:50:12 host postgres[229934]: [229934] LOG:  checkpoint starting: time
Oct 04 09:50:13 host postgres[229934]: [229934] LOG:  checkpoint complete: wrote 4 buffers (0.0%); 0 WAL file(s) added, 0 removed, 0 recycled; write=0.401 s, sync=0.005 s, total=0.416 s; sync files=3, longest=0.005 s, average=0.002 s; distance=7 kB, estimate=7 kB; lsn=0/2CF6D858, redo lsn=0/2CF6D820
Oct 04 09:50:15 host postgres[295453]: [295453] ERROR:  pgvecto.rs: The extension is upgraded so all index files are outdated.
Oct 04 09:50:15 host postgres[295453]:         ADVICE: Delete all index files. Please read `https://docs.pgvecto.rs/admin/upgrading.html`
Oct 04 09:50:15 host postgres[295453]: [295453] STATEMENT:  SELECT idx_status FROM pg_vector_index_stat WHERE indexname = $1
3

Turns out I needed to restart the psql service, then run the below, then restart it again

$ sudo -u postgres psql -d immich                                 
psql (16.4)
Type "help" for help.

immich=# SELECT
        I.relname AS indexname
    FROM pg_index X JOIN
         pg_class I ON I.oid = X.indexrelid JOIN
         pg_am A ON A.oid = I.relam
    WHERE A.amname = 'vectors';
 indexname  
------------
 clip_index
 face_index
(2 rows)

immich=# REINDEX INDEX clip_index;
REINDEX
immich=# REINDEX INDEX face_index;
REINDEX
2 Likes
4

Since immich has switched to vectorchord, upgrade instructions are now here: Pre-existing Postgres | Immich

5

Thanks for this, I didn’t realize there was a manual configuration step needed. In case anyone else is a little baffled how to accomplish on NixOS, here’s the steps I took:

  1. Made sure the automatic vectorChord update happened by making sure face_index and clip_index were re-indexed:
journalctl --grep "Reindexed [clip_index|face_index]" --no-pager 
Sep 26 10:42:43 homeserver immich[2204452]: [Nest] 2204452  - 09/26/2025, 10:42:43 AM     LOG [Microservices:DatabaseRepository] Reindexed clip_index
Sep 26 10:42:43 homeserver immich[2204452]: [Nest] 2204452  - 09/26/2025, 10:42:43 AM     LOG [Microservices:DatabaseRepository] Reindexed face_index
  1. Checked no other databases were using the vectors extension (command per ChatGPT, just be clear, but I didn’t blow up anything that I’m aware of):
sudo -u postgres psql -At -d postgres -c "SELECT datname FROM pg_database WHERE datallowconn AND NOT datistemplate" | while read db; do sudo -u postgres psql -At -d "$db" -c "SELECT '$db' AS db, extname FROM pg_extension WHERE extname IN ('vectors')"; done

Ideally no output or something like <service> | vectors if something else is using it.

  1. Made sure the vectorChord extension was installed using nix-tree and \dx in psql, then dropped the vectors extension and schema:
sudo -u postgres psql
immich=# \dx
immich=# DROP extension vectors;
immich=# DROP schema vectors;
  1. Set immich.database.enableVectors = false; in my immich.nix
  2. rebuild/switch

Maybe I was overly cautious or did this unnecessarily :man_shrugging:t2: ?

6

The upgrade from pg_vectors to vectorchord should happen automatically via some specific versions of immich (which happened in my case). However in my case, vectorchord indices needed reindexing recently for some reason. (I don’t know enough about psql to understand the conditions that cause this.)