guide jellyfin

Jellyfin after a downgrade: "Healthy", but nobody can log in (no such column: p.Permission_Permissions_Guid)

You updated Jellyfin to 12, went back to 10.11 by changing the image tag - and now it starts, the health check says Healthy, but every login fails with a server error (HTTP 500). The log shows:

Microsoft.Data.Sqlite.SqliteException (0x80004005): SQLite Error 1: 'no such column: p.Permission_Permissions_Guid'.

Why

Jellyfin 12 rewrites its database on the first start. Version 10.11 cannot read the new layout, and Jellyfin does not support a downgrade. Rolling back only the image leaves the migrated data in place - so the old version starts, but every query that touches users fails.

Get logins back

1. Fastest: put the 12.x image back. The database was migrated by 12.x, so the version that migrated it can read it.
2. Really go back to 10.11: you need the data from before the update - restore your pre-update backup of /config together with the old image. In our test run this brought logins back on 10.11.11; anything created after the backup (for example a new user) is gone.

Next time: snapshot first

The free safe-update tool takes a consistent snapshot right before a docker compose update and restores the data and the old image together. It also refuses a jump that skips a required step (Jellyfin wants 10.11.11 or newer before 12).

Error text from a real run on a throw-away test machine (Jellyfin 12.1 -> 10.11.11 image rollback, 6 Oct 2026). Not an official Jellyfin page; not affiliated with Jellyfin. Made with AI assistance.