unable to get current maintenance parameters

Error message

unable to get current maintenance parameters

What it means

Wraps a failure of maintenance.GetParams(ctx, rep) while applying retention changes during `repository set-parameters`. When the new blobcfg enables retention, Kopia fetches current maintenance parameters to validate that retention can be extended safely; failure to read those parameters produces this error.

Solutions

Run `kopia maintenance info` to confirm maintenance parameters exist and are readable, then retry set-parameters
Initialize/repair maintenance config: kopia maintenance set --interval ... / run kopia maintenance run
Fix storage connectivity or credential issues and retry
Verify version compatibility between CLI and repository format

Example fix

// before
p, err := maintenance.GetParams(ctx, rep)
if err != nil { return errors.Wrap(err, "unable to get current maintenance parameters") }
// after
p, err := maintenance.GetParams(ctx, rep)
if err != nil {
    log(ctx).Errorf("maintenance.GetParams: %v", err)
    return errors.Wrap(err, "unable to get current maintenance parameters")
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// ensure maintenance is configured before enabling retention
p, err := maintenance.GetParams(ctx, rep)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("maintenance must be configured before enabling retention: %w", err)
}

Try / catch

p, err := maintenance.GetParams(ctx, rep)
if err != nil {
    return errors.Wrap(err, "unable to get current maintenance parameters")
}

Prevention

Run `kopia maintenance info` first to confirm maintenance params exist
Initialize maintenance settings on new repositories before enabling retention
Check storage connectivity before retention changes

When it happens

Trigger: `kopia repository set-parameters --retention-*` (or any change enabling retention) where maintenance.GetParams cannot read the maintenance schedule/parameters from the repository — storage failure, missing maintenance config blob, or unparseable parameters.

Common situations: Retention being enabled on a repository that never had maintenance configured/quick-maintenance run; object storage temporarily unavailable; maintenance config written by an incompatible Kopia version.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required config value" errors: why libraries refuse to start when a configuration key is empty, unset, or blank — this error's family across 48 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of kopia/kopia@82495e54b5 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f17aa001e30a3490. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at cli/command_repository_set_parameters.go:227

	setDurationParameter(ctx, c.epochMinDuration, "minimum epoch duration", &mp.EpochParameters.MinEpochDuration, &anyChange)
	setDurationParameter(ctx, c.epochRefreshFrequency, "epoch refresh frequency", &mp.EpochParameters.EpochRefreshFrequency, &anyChange)
	setDurationParameter(ctx, c.epochCleanupSafetyMargin, "epoch cleanup safety margin", &mp.EpochParameters.CleanupSafetyMargin, &anyChange)
	setIntParameter(ctx, c.epochAdvanceOnCount, "epoch advance on count", &mp.EpochParameters.EpochAdvanceOnCountThreshold, &anyChange)
	setSizeMBParameter(ctx, c.epochAdvanceOnSizeMB, "epoch advance on total size", &mp.EpochParameters.EpochAdvanceOnTotalSizeBytesThreshold, &anyChange)
	setIntParameter(ctx, c.epochDeleteParallelism, "epoch delete parallelism", &mp.EpochParameters.DeleteParallelism, &anyChange)
	setIntParameter(ctx, c.epochCheckpointFrequency, "epoch range-compaction period", &mp.EpochParameters.FullCheckpointFrequency, &anyChange)

	requiredFeatures = c.addRemoveUpdateRequiredFeatures(requiredFeatures, &anyChange)

	if !anyChange {
		log(ctx).Info("no changes")
		return nil
	}

	if blobcfg.IsRetentionEnabled() {
		p, err := maintenance.GetParams(ctx, rep)
		if err != nil {
			return errors.Wrap(err, "unable to get current maintenance parameters")
		}

		if err := maintenance.CheckExtendRetention(ctx, blobcfg, p); err != nil {
			return errors.Wrap(err, "unable to apply maintenance changes")
		}
	}

	if err := updateRepositoryParameters(ctx, upgradeToEpochManager, mp, rep, blobcfg, requiredFeatures); err != nil {
		return errors.Wrap(err, "error updating repository parameters")
	}

	log(ctx).Info("NOTE: Repository parameters updated, you must disconnect and re-connect all other Kopia clients.")

	return nil
}

func (c *commandRepositorySetParameters) addRemoveUpdateRequiredFeatures(orig []feature.Required, anyChange *bool) []feature.Required {
	var result []feature.Required

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