WatchTower Issues [SOLVED-THANKS]

[email protected]

So, right out the gate, I realize Watchtower has been abandoned. I get that. Still, it's a great app. 95% of the time, it works every time.

The issue I have is as follows:

INFO[93549] Found new searxng/searxng:latest image (5613a99caf5d) 
INFO[93565] Found new prom/prometheus:latest image (b5239da13ab0) 
INFO[93584] Found new ghcr.io/karakeep-app/karakeep:latest image (c5fcb1a653c6) 
INFO[93592] Stopping /CADVISOR-PROMETHEUS (342680d2a684) with SIGTERM 
INFO[93593] Creating /CADVISOR-PROMETHEUS                
INFO[93594] Stopping /SEARXNG (0842827f17a9) with SIGTERM 
INFO[93597] Creating /SEARXNG                            
ERRO[93597] Error response from daemon: the container-wide MAC address must match the endpoint-specific MAC address for the main network, or be left empty 
INFO[93597] Removing image 9e24e9a9806c                  
INFO[93597] Session done                                  Failed=1 Scanned=38 Updated=2 notify=no

It doesn't do this everytime, and it's not one particular container. It seems random. For the example of SearxNG, I have not specified a MAC address.

::: spoiler spoiler

docker run -d \
  --name searxng \
  -p 8989:8080 \
  -v /srv/docker/searxng/data:/etc/searxng \
  -e SEARXNG_BASE_URL="https://" \
  -e SEARXNG_INSTANCE_NAME="SearxNG" \
  -e SEARXNG_CONTACT_INFO="mail.com" \
  -e SEARXNG_LANGUAGE="en-US" \
  -e SEARXNG_AUTOCOMPLETE="duckduckgo" \
  -e SEARXNG_THEME="simple" \
  -e SEARXNG_OUTGOING_METHOD="default" \
  -e SEARXNG_ENABLE_METRICS="true" \
  -e SEARXNG_ENABLE_CAPTCHA="false" \
  -e SEARXNG_ENABLE_INFINITE_SCROLL="true" \
  -e SEARXNG_ENABLE_PIWIK_ANALYTICS="false" \
  -e SEARXNG_ENABLE_ADVANCED_SEARCH="true" \
  -e SEARXNG_ENABLE_PRIVATE_RESULTS="true" \
  -e SEARXNG_ENABLE_TORIFICATION="false" \
  -e SEARXNG_ENABLE_HTTPS_EVERYWHERE="true" \
  -e SEARXNG_ENABLE_PROXY="false" \
  -e SEARXNG_ENABLE_PLUGINS="true" \
  searxng/searxng

:::

In fact, I've never specified a specific MAC for any of my containers, and just let Docker do what it do. I'm just wondering if anyone has run up on this issue, and what did you do to remediate it, besides use another updater app? I like Watchtower, but only 95% of the time. LOL

It's not a huge issue spinning the container back up. Takes less than 30 sec. However, that's not how it's supposed to work, so I seek input.

ETA: Just adding this for anyone who is testing the Watchtower fork or are thinking about it. Day 2, and everything is running just fine. I have not had any of the issues that I had with OG Watchtower:

::: spoiler spoiler

time="2025-07-01T17:28:21Z" level=info msg="Found new netdata/netdata:edge image (7cbd870f51b0)"
time="2025-07-01T17:28:42Z" level=info msg="Found new influxdb:2 image (b4355848b856)"
time="2025-07-01T17:28:54Z" level=info msg="Found new ghcr.io/karakeep-app/karakeep:latest image (c5fcb1a653c6)"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:03Z" level=info msg="Found new redis:latest image (ed3a2af6d0d4)"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:04Z" level=info msg="Stopping /CADVISOR-REDIS (84a28cf8904d) with SIGTERM"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:06Z" level=info msg="Stopping /ROOT-INFLUXDB2-1 (a14e51a1b7db) with SIGTERM"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:07Z" level=info msg="Stopping /NETDATA (bde1241c0073) with SIGTERM"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:09Z" level=info msg="Creating /NETDATA"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:09Z" level=info msg="Creating /ROOT-INFLUXDB2-1"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:10Z" level=info msg="Creating /CADVISOR-REDIS"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:10Z" level=info msg="Session done" Failed=0 Scanned=38 Updated=4 notify=no
time="2025-07-02T17:28:07Z" level=info msg="Found new openlistteam/openlist:latest image (0926eda3de9a)"
time="2025-07-02T17:28:23Z" level=info msg="Found new portainer/portainer-ce:latest image (71de3839351a)"
time="2025-07-02T17:28:32Z" level=info msg="Found new ghcr.io/karakeep-app/karakeep:latest image (c5fcb1a653c6)"
time="2025-07-02T17:28:57Z" level=info msg="Found new bigbeartechworld/big-bear-btop:latest image (737e9af25da3)"
time="2025-07-02T17:29:01Z" level=info msg="Stopping /BTOP-PLUS-PLUS (751299b8b022) with SIGTERM"
time="2025-07-02T17:29:04Z" level=info msg="Stopping /PORTAINER (aa754cb14780) with SIGTERM"
time="2025-07-02T17:29:05Z" level=info msg="Stopping /OPENLIST (2ca56a872944) with SIGTERM"
time="2025-07-02T17:29:06Z" level=info msg="Creating /OPENLIST"
time="2025-07-02T17:29:06Z" level=info msg="Creating /PORTAINER"
time="2025-07-02T17:29:07Z" level=info msg="Creating /BTOP-PLUS-PLUS"
time="2025-07-02T17:29:08Z" level=info msg="Session done" Failed=0 Scanned=38 Updated=4 notify=no

:::

[email protected]

Here is a fork of watchtower that is meant to keep things up to date that might work for you. I haven't tried it yet but am setting it up now.

[email protected]

Personally having great results with Diun. Same idea (check for newer container image) and works 100% for me.

Don’t know if it can automatically load and restart containers, rather do that personally.

[email protected]

Thanks, I'll give it a go

time="2025-06-30T17:27:53Z" level=info msg="Watchtower 2.3.2"
time="2025-06-30T17:27:53Z" level=info msg="Using no notifications"
time="2025-06-30T17:27:53Z" level=info msg="Checking all containers (except explicitly disabled with label)"
time="2025-06-30T17:27:53Z" level=info msg="Scheduling first run: 2025-07-01 17:27:53 +0000 UTC"
time="2025-06-30T17:27:53Z" level=info msg="Note that the first check will be performed in 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds"

We'll see.

[email protected]

It's on the list.

[email protected]

If anyone is interested in just a simple image updates monitoring, check out cup.I know its not exactly what you want (it doesn't do the update), but I stumbled on it quite by accident and I like the simplicity.

[email protected]

Did not know it was abandoned, will look thru all this tonight.

[email protected]

Judging from the changelog it's almost exclusively updated dependencies and no real development to speak of.

[email protected]

Thanks for sharing this looks great!

[email protected]

Perhaps I should clarify. The project 'appears' to have been abandoned or is no longer being maintained. I don't want to go starting shit that doesn't need starting.

https://github.com/containrrr/watchtower/discussions/1993

[email protected]

Cups gives you everything except the automating. Push come to shove, it's a reasonable fall back. There is also WUD which does include automation.

[email protected]

What is the point of this type of service if you’re not getting it to automatically load and restart containers?

Does it notify you of newer container images or something?

I never bothered to set up watchtower because I didn’t want it to just apply updates before I could read the changelog. But maybe I was confused about its purpose.

[email protected]

Exactly. It's simple, it integrates with home assistant and I have a few images that I like to choose when to do the update, so its perfect for me

[email protected]

Ah ok got it. For me personally that's about really all I want I guess. Watchtower has been so rock solid for me for so long that I just want to make sure it's at least kept up to date. Thanks!

[email protected]

So far so good with my change.

[email protected]

Exactly this. It checks periodically if a newer image for the tag of the container is available (e.g. vaultwarden:latest) and tells you about it. You can setup mail, sms, Teams, you name it.

So then you know a new version is available, can check the changelog and decide if the update is worth it.

[email protected]

Day 1. It seems to work:

time="2025-07-01T17:28:21Z" level=info msg="Found new netdata/netdata:edge image (7cbd870f51b0)"
time="2025-07-01T17:28:42Z" level=info msg="Found new influxdb:2 image (b4355848b856)"
time="2025-07-01T17:28:54Z" level=info msg="Found new ghcr.io/karakeep-app/karakeep:latest image (c5fcb1a653c6)"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:03Z" level=info msg="Found new redis:latest image (ed3a2af6d0d4)"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:04Z" level=info msg="Stopping /CADVISOR-REDIS (84a28cf8904d) with SIGTERM"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:06Z" level=info msg="Stopping /ROOT-INFLUXDB2-1 (a14e51a1b7db) with SIGTERM"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:07Z" level=info msg="Stopping /NETDATA (bde1241c0073) with SIGTERM"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:09Z" level=info msg="Creating /NETDATA"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:09Z" level=info msg="Creating /ROOT-INFLUXDB2-1"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:10Z" level=info msg="Creating /CADVISOR-REDIS"
time="2025-07-01T17:29:10Z" level=info msg="Session done" Failed=0 Scanned=38 Updated=4 notify=no

[email protected]

Tooting my own horn here and I know it's not a 1-1 replacement, but as others mentioned some great alternatives (diun, cup, wud) I'd like to suggest dockcheck.

[email protected]

Ah sweet! Good to know, thanks!

[email protected]

I'm a big fan of options my dude. Checked it out. Looks very interesting. I do like these video caps you guys include in your instructions. Being a very visual person, it helps out a lot. It is bookmarked in my projects folder.

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WatchTower Issues [SOLVED-THANKS]