Error response from daemon: no such container when running `docker compose up`

[detectivekaktus]

Description

For a few days already I've been facing this weird issue. Anytime I want to run docker compose up I'm given the following error:

 Network midas_default   Created                                                                                                 0.0s 
 ✔ Container ea85756a438f  Removed                                                                                                 0.0s 
 ✘ Container 44b9cb711bf2  Error response from daemon: No such container: 44b9cb711bf25a3d19ef8a5254c0...                          0.2s 
Error response from daemon: No such container: 44b9cb711bf25a3d19ef8a5254c08df820f22f72a98464e4d17beb6156dbbeb0

The id of this container remains the same across restarts of the docker engine, docker desktop app, and system reboots.

The docker ps -a command shows that the container causing the problem is already exited.

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                      COMMAND                  CREATED        STATUS                      PORTS     NAMES
44b9cb711bf2   postgres:17.6-alpine3.22   "docker-entrypoint.s…"   3 weeks ago    Exited (0) 3 weeks ago                
ea85756a438f   postgres:17.6-alpine3.22   "docker-entrypoint.s…"   5 weeks ago    Exited (0) 5 weeks ago                
cbfecd6aedec   88e904502786               "docker-entrypoint.s…"   2 months ago   Exited (128) 2 months ago

I've tried running:

• docker compose down --remove-orphans
• docker system prune -f
• docker rm 44b9cb711bf2 ea85756a438f
• docker volume prune -f
• docker network prune -f
  but none worked out.

Reproduce

There's no such list of steps I've done to get to this issue. The fact that it says that the problematic container is exited 3 weeks ago, I doubt I could remember any.

The only thing that comes to my mind is I probably shut down the computer with the containers running.

Expected behavior

docker compose up should start my application normally.

docker version

Client:
 Version:           28.4.0
 API version:       1.51
 Go version:        go1.24.7
 Git commit:        d8eb465
 Built:             Wed Sep  3 20:56:28 2025
 OS/Arch:           linux/amd64
 Context:           desktop-linux

Server: Docker Desktop 4.54.0 (212467)
 Engine:
  Version:          29.1.2
  API version:      1.52 (minimum version 1.44)
  Go version:       go1.25.5
  Git commit:       de45c2a
  Built:            Tue Dec  2 21:55:26 2025
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          v2.2.0
  GitCommit:        1c4457e00facac03ce1d75f7b6777a7a851e5c41
 runc:
  Version:          1.3.4
  GitCommit:        v1.3.4-0-gd6d73eb8
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

docker info

Client:
 Version:    28.4.0
 Context:    desktop-linux
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  ai: Docker AI Agent - Ask Gordon (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.17.0
    Path:     /home/detectivekaktus/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-ai
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.30.1-desktop.1
    Path:     /home/detectivekaktus/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v2.40.3-desktop.1
    Path:     /home/detectivekaktus/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
  debug: Get a shell into any image or container (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  0.0.45
    Path:     /home/detectivekaktus/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-debug
  desktop: Docker Desktop commands (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.0
    Path:     /home/detectivekaktus/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-desktop
  extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.31
    Path:     /home/detectivekaktus/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-extension
  init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.4.0
    Path:     /home/detectivekaktus/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-init
  mcp: Docker MCP Plugin (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.28.0
    Path:     /home/detectivekaktus/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-mcp
  offload: Docker Offload (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.5.29
    Path:     /home/detectivekaktus/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-offload
  sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
    Version:  0.6.0
    Path:     /home/detectivekaktus/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-sbom
  scout: Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.18.3
    Path:     /home/detectivekaktus/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scout

Server:
 Containers: 11
  Running: 0
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 11
 Images: 3
 Server Version: 29.1.2
 Storage Driver: overlayfs
  driver-type: io.containerd.snapshotter.v1
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
 Cgroup Version: 2
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local splunk syslog
 CDI spec directories:
  /etc/cdi
  /var/run/cdi
 Discovered Devices:
  cdi: docker.com/gpu=webgpu
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: 1c4457e00facac03ce1d75f7b6777a7a851e5c41
 runc version: v1.3.4-0-gd6d73eb8
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: builtin
  cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 6.12.54-linuxkit
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: x86_64
 CPUs: 4
 Total Memory: 1.747GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: 5451c208-2b4c-4661-bd3e-30265731c491
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 HTTP Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 HTTPS Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 No Proxy: hubproxy.docker.internal
 Labels:
  com.docker.desktop.address=unix:///home/detectivekaktus/.docker/desktop/docker-cli.sock
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
  ::1/128
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false

Diagnostics ID

74C1C55D-8CDA-4775-B05D-BCF8BF2D8C57/20251215172806

Additional Info

No response

[akerouanton]

Thanks for reporting @detectivekaktus. I've opened moby/moby#51724 to fix the symptoms. With that fix, you should be able to remove that otherwise unremovable container.

[lukasz-matter]

I'm also affected by this issue. Are there any known workarounds? I'd very much like to have my docker-compose environment to work 😅

EDIT: changing the name of the affected service in the docker-compose.yaml file is a workaround for this issue. The docker compose down --remove-orphans fails, but removes all the containers it can before.

[detectivekaktus]

Any updates on this one?

The @lukasz-matter fix worked for a long time but now docker completely ignores renaming and still doesn't want to start the containers.

[raweber42]

Is there any way to mitigate this? I am stuck with this error, tried rebooting, deleting containers etc, nothing helped

[detectivekaktus]

I'm not sure if this behavior is anyhow related to the issue but sometimes Docker desktop just starts shutting down infinitely. Only killing the process resolves the issue. It doesn't matter if there were or weren't containers running, it randomly decides to enter this infinite shutting down state.

[alpet83]

I have same issue, after moving /var/containerd content to dedicated partition without stopping service containerd. Solving are easy - for each container hash need remove same entry from /var/lib/docker/containers and restart docker service.

[raweber42]

I fixed this by shutting down docker compose (docker compose down), copying the docker-compose.yml file to another folder and bringing it docker compose up -d again.

Of course, if you have volumes, some adjustments need to be made, but this workaround did it for me.

[dabde]

Another way to fix this (debian).

Had 6 Container define under docker ps -a as Dead, all related IDs had to start with docker compose. So looks like a broken reference or so and happen for me after an apt upgrade.

To solve:

1. stop docker
2. locate all IDs that define as Dead and remove related Container under /var/lib/docker/containers/
3. restart docker
4. start docker compose stuff

[detectivekaktus]

Can this be closed since y'all found workarounds and there seems to be no reaction from the devs?

[homersimpsons]

Can this be closed since y'all found workarounds and there seems to be no reaction from the devs?

From what I understand this should now be fixed by (allowing removal) with moby/moby#51724 (released on 29.4.0 according to milestones). I know a developer on 29.4.1 that still have the issue though.

Note that a lighter alternative for the issue that works is to set a different container_name for the offending container:

services:
  mysql:
    image: mysql:8.0
+    container_name: my_awesomeapp2_mysql

(alternatively, setting a COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME works but re-creates everything including volumes so that may not be desirable)