spacedriveapp/spacedrive · critical · anyhow::Error

Unknown config version

Error message

Unknown config version: {}

What it means

app_config.migrate() walks a chain of version steps (v1 through v6, with 6 as terminal) and any other version value falls into the catch-all arm. A version above 6 means the config file was written by a newer build than the one reading it; a garbage value means corruption or hand-editing. Because migrate() fails, config load and daemon startup fail with it.

Solutions

1. Upgrade back to (or past) the version that wrote the config so it understands the version
2. Or back up and remove/recreate the config file to reset to defaults (accepting loss of app settings)
3. Never share one data dir between old and new builds; use separate --data-dir per version

Example fix

# before: data dir written by newer build
sd daemon start   # Unknown config version: 7

# after: quarantine old config, start fresh
mv ~/.spacedrive/app_config.json ~/.spacedrive/app_config.json.bak
sd daemon start

fn config_version_supported(path: &std::path::Path) -> anyhow::Result<bool> {
    let v: serde_json::Value = serde_json::from_str(&std::fs::read_to_string(path)?)?;
    Ok(v.get("version").and_then(|v| v.as_u64()).map_or(false, |n| (1..=6).contains(&n)))
}

fn is_known_config_version(v: u64) -> bool {
    (1..=6).contains(&v)
}

match config.migrate() {
    Ok(()) => {}
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("Unknown config version") => {
        eprintln!("Config was written by a newer build. Upgrade the daemon, or back up and remove the config to reset.");
        std::process::exit(1);
    }
    Err(e) => return Err(e),
}

When it happens

Trigger: Downgrading the daemon/CLI after a newer release wrote a v7+ config; two builds of different versions sharing one data dir; manual edits to the version field.

Common situations: Rolling back a release to fix a regression; testing builds side by side against the same data dir; config files synced between machines running different versions.

Related errors

• ContentIdentity missing UUID
• Could not determine data directory
• Could not determine home directory
• Could not determine home directory
• Failed to query library devices

AI-assisted analysis of spacedriveapp/spacedrive@6dfeccf211 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9acfd836827b38a8. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at core/src/config/app_config.rs:385

				// Migration from v3 to v4: Add multi-stream logging configuration
				self.logging = LoggingConfig::default();
				self.version = 4;
				Ok(())
			}
			4 => {
				// Migration from v4 to v5: Add proxy pairing configuration
				self.proxy_pairing = ProxyPairingConfig::default();
				self.version = 5;
				self.migrate()
			}
			5 => {
				// Migration from v5 to v6: Add Spacebot companion configuration
				self.spacebot = SpacebotConfig::default();
				self.version = 6;
				Ok(())
			}
			6 => Ok(()), // Already at target version
			v => Err(anyhow!("Unknown config version: {}", v)),
		}
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 6dfeccf211)