Troubleshooting

This guide covers common issues and troubleshooting steps for AliasVault encountered during installation, updates or general maintenance.

Troubleshooting

Check Docker Container Status

For any issues you might encounter, the first step is to check the Docker containers health. This will give you a quick insight into the status of the individual containers which will help you identify the root cause of the issue.

List all running containers and their status (execute from the AliasVault installation directory):
```
docker compose ps
```
Check the logs of a specific container.
```
docker compose logs [container-name-here]]
```
Possible container names: api, postgres, client, admin, reverse-proxy, smtp, task-runner
In order to restart a specific container, run the following command:
```
docker compose restart [container-name-here]
```
In order to restart the whole AliasVault stack, do not use docker compose directly, but run the following command instead. This makes sure the correct docker-compose.yml file is being used:
```
./install.sh restart
```

Check AliasVault Text Logs

All AliasVault services log information and errors to text files. These files are located in the logs directory. You can check the logs of a specific container by running the following command:

cat logs/[container-name-here].log

Common Issues

Below are some common issues you might encounter and how to troubleshoot them.

1. Database Connection Issues

Symptoms:

API, Admin, or SMTP services failing to start
Database connection errors in logs

Steps:

Check if PostgreSQL container is running:
```
docker compose ps
```
Check the logs of the PostgreSQL container:
```
docker compose logs postgres
```

2. SSL Certificate Issues

Symptoms:

Browser shows SSL errors

Steps:

Check the certbot container logs if SSL certificates are being correctly renewed:
```
docker compose logs certbot
```
Check the logs of the reverse-proxy container:
```
docker compose logs reverse-proxy
```
In case the SSL certificates are being correctly renewed, but the browser still shows SSL errors, try to restart AliasVault manually in order to force the NGINX container to reload the SSL certificates:
```
./install.sh restart
```

3. No emails being received

If you are not receiving emails on your aliases, check the following:

Verify DNS records are correctly configured
Ensure ports 25 and 587 are accessible
Check your server’s firewall settings
Verify that your ISP/hosting provider allows SMTP traffic

Refer to the installation guide for more information on how to configure your DNS records and ports.

4. Forgot AliasVault Admin Password

If you have lost your admin password, you can reset it by running the install script with the reset-admin-password option. This will generate a new random password and update the .env file with it. After that it will restart the AliasVault containers to apply the changes.

./install.sh reset-admin-password

Other Issues

If you encounter any other issues not mentioned here and need help, please join our Discord server or create an issue on the GitHub repository and we will be happy to help you out.

Find all contact information on the contact page of our website: https://aliasvault.net/contact