Failed to restore from backup: subscriptions and replication slots must be dropped first

Last edited: October 13, 2026

As the error suggests, you must first drop any current subscriptions or replication slots to restore backups.

You can check those with:

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SELECT * FROM pg_replication_slots;
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SELECT * FROM pg_subscription;

You can drop them with:

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DROP SUBSCRIPTION <subscription>;
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SELECT pg_drop_replication_slot(slot_name);

NOTE: These are destructive actions. This is fine since you will overwrite your database with a backup.

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