[Support]: Deleting x% of recordings DB entries, could be due to configuration error. Aborting...

[matknowles]

Describe the problem you are having

I've been through a lot of trouble with my 6tb surveillance drive. I've finally got the drive sorted but don't want to delete my frigate db and format the drive if possible. I wanted to clear up any orphaned files or corrupted files after optimising my retention settings. It looks like there's a lot of mess left over. I changed the frigate config temporarily to
record:
sync_recordings: true

and restarted, but am getting:

2025-08-22 21:13:48 Tag frigate.record.util Message Deleting 445435 recording DB entries with missing files
2025-08-22 21:13:48 Tag frigate.record.util Message Deleting 0.979503% of recordings DB entries, could be due to configuration error. Aborting...

Is there a way to force this through? Or otherwise sort this without having to nuke everything and start over?

Thanks

Version

0.16.0-c2f8de9

What browser(s) are you using?

No response

Frigate config file

N/A

Relevant Frigate log output

info    | 2025-08-22 21:13:48 | frigate.record.util | Deleting 445435 recording DB entries with missing files
warning | 2025-08-22 21:13:48 | frigate.record.util | Deleting 0.979503% of recordings DB entries, could be due to configuration error. Aborting...

Relevant go2rtc log output

N/A

FFprobe output from your camera

NA

Frigate stats

No response

Install method

Docker Compose

docker-compose file or Docker CLI command

N/A

Object Detector

Coral

Network connection

Wired

Camera make and model

N/A

Screenshots of the Frigate UI's System metrics pages

No response

Any other information that may be helpful

No response

[NickM-27]

This is just because you have sync_recordings enabled, there is nothing that you really need to do here other than realistically just disable sync_recordings. The DB entries will be removed per the usual retention policy

[matknowles]

ok thanks, i'm just worried a lot may have been orphaned in possible corruption that the retention policy isn't accounting for (paranoid perhaps). if i delete the db but keep the 6tb drive with the files on untouched will i lose all the objects in explore and recordings even though they're still on the 6tb drive? I've been messing about with retention a lot recently to try and optimise for the 6tb drive.

[NickM-27]

I would suggest leaving the DB alone, it will maintain itself. You a just delete the recording files manually for dates older than you want.

[inkeep-ai-assistant[bot]]

When you set record: sync_recordings: true, Frigate will check the file system and delete any database entries for files that don't exist. This feature is designed to fix mismatches—not to completely delete entries in the database(1). If a very large percentage of entries are missing files, Frigate will abort the operation to avoid accidental mass-deletion, which is what you’re seeing with the "could be due to configuration error. Aborting..." message(1).

If you want to clear out all orphaned or corrupted entries without deleting your entire database, the documentation states:
"If you delete all of your media, don't use sync_recordings, just stop Frigate, delete the frigate.db database, and restart."(1)

There is no documented way to "force" the sync to continue when it aborts due to a high percentage of missing files. The only documented recovery for a severely inconsistent state is to stop Frigate, delete the frigate.db database, and restart, but this will remove all event history and review items(1).

If you want to avoid deleting your database, you could try resolving any configuration errors, ensuring your media directory is intact, and then running the sync again. However, if the mismatch is due to mass file loss or corruption, the only supported cleanup is a full database reset(1).

📚 Sources:

1. Recording

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