cannot resume follow mode: database exists but no -txid file

Error message

cannot resume follow mode: database exists but no -txid file found; delete the database to re-restore: %s

What it means

Follow-mode resume guard: the output database exists but its TXID sidecar file contains TXID 0 (or is effectively absent). Litestream cannot tell where to resume applying LTX files, so it refuses rather than risk double-applying transactions.

Source

Thrown at replica.go:631

		return fmt.Errorf("cannot specify index & timestamp to restore")
	} else if opt.Follow && opt.TXID != 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("cannot use follow mode with -txid")
	} else if opt.Follow && !opt.Timestamp.IsZero() {
		return fmt.Errorf("cannot use follow mode with -timestamp")
	} else if opt.IntegrityCheck != IntegrityCheckNone && opt.IntegrityCheck != IntegrityCheckQuick && opt.IntegrityCheck != IntegrityCheckFull {
		return fmt.Errorf("unsupported integrity check mode: %d", opt.IntegrityCheck)
	}

	// In follow mode, if the database already exists, attempt crash recovery
	// by reading the last applied TXID from the sidecar file.
	if opt.Follow {
		if _, statErr := os.Stat(opt.OutputPath); statErr == nil {
			txid, readErr := ReadTXIDFile(opt.OutputPath)
			if readErr != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("read txid file for crash recovery: %w", readErr)
			}
			if txid == 0 {
				return fmt.Errorf("cannot resume follow mode: database exists but no -txid file found; delete the database to re-restore: %s", opt.OutputPath)
			}
			// Validate saved TXID is still reachable. If the earliest snapshot
			// starts after our saved TXID, retention has pruned the history
			// and we can't catch up incrementally.
			snapshotItr, itrErr := r.Client.LTXFiles(ctx, SnapshotLevel, 0, false)
			if itrErr != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("cannot validate saved TXID for crash recovery: %w", itrErr)
			}

			var latestSnapshot *ltx.FileInfo
			for snapshotItr.Next() {
				latestSnapshot = snapshotItr.Item()
			}
			if err := snapshotItr.Err(); err != nil {
				_ = snapshotItr.Close()
				return fmt.Errorf("iterate snapshots for crash recovery validation: %w", err)
			}
			_ = snapshotItr.Close()

View on GitHub (pinned to 4ed7a308f6)

Solutions

Delete the database and its -txid file, then re-restore
Or write a valid -txid sidecar with the correct last-applied TXID

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at replica.go:631 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of benbjohnson/litestream@4ed7a308f6 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3637c2b4ace6b232. Report an issue: GitHub.