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Back up Docker app SQLite databases without stopping containers

Most self-hosted media apps (Plex, Jellyfin, Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Prowlarr, Bazarr, Tautulli, Overseerr/Jellyseerr, SABnzbd, Calibre and others) keep their state in SQLite files under their config volume. Copying those files with cp or tar while the app is running can give you a corrupt copy. SQLite's online backup API makes a consistent copy while the app keeps running.

The core idea

sqlite3 -readonly /data/sonarr/config/sonarr.db ".timeout 60000" ".backup '/tmp/sonarr.db'"
sqlite3 /tmp/sonarr.db "PRAGMA quick_check;"      # should print: ok
gzip -c /tmp/sonarr.db > /mnt/backup/$(hostname -s)/sonarr/$(date +%Y.%m.%d_%H).sonarr.db.gz

.timeout makes sqlite wait for the app's write locks instead of failing.

A script around it

Keep a simple list of app|path|check entries at the top, for example:

DBS=(
  "plex|$DATA/plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.plugins.library.db|0"
  "sonarr|$DATA/sonarr/config/sonarr.db|1"
  "radarr|$DATA/radarr/config/radarr.db|1"
)

The last field turns the integrity check on or off. Plex's database uses custom tokenizers that make quick_check report false errors, so set it to 0 for Plex.

Good habits worth building in:

  • Refuse to run if the backup share isn't mounted: mountpoint -q /mnt/backup || exit 1. Otherwise backups fill the local disk.
  • Check free space before starting (for example, require 10 GB).
  • Run gently with nice -n 19 ionice -c3.
  • Prevent overlapping runs with flock -n.
  • Write to file.part, then mv, so a half-written backup never looks complete.
  • Also copy the app's own backup zips (the *arr apps write them to config/Backups).
  • Add a --list option that shows what would be backed up and writes nothing.
  • Keep N days and delete older copies: find ... -name '*.gz' -mtime +14 -delete.

Schedule

30 1 * * * root /usr/local/bin/backup_docker_dbs.sh >/dev/null 2>&1

Restore

  1. docker stop <container>
  2. Move the live app.db aside, and remove app.db-wal and app.db-shm.
  3. gunzip -c <backup>.gz > app.db
  4. chown <puid>:<pgid> app.db (the IDs the container runs as).
  5. docker start <container>
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