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 docker stop Move the live app.db aside, and remove app.db-wal and app.db-shm . gunzip -c .gz > app.db chown : app.db (the IDs the container runs as). docker start