Question

Postgres Database sequence out of sync

Posted on June 15, 2023
Database
Asked by Fred Mainga

My database table sequencing has gone off sync, I’m getting PK violation errors on inserts. I’ve tried restarting the sequnce it but rolls back to the erroneous sequence. Please help.

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Bobby Iliev

Site Moderator

• June 15, 2023

Hi there,

You could give the following a try:

Take a backup of your database so that you could revert to it in case anything goes wrong!
Login to psql and run the following
Get the max value from your table:

SELECT MAX(id) FROM your_table;

Then run the following, which should be higher than the last result:

SELECT nextval('your_table_id_seq');

If it’s not higher, run this set the sequence last to your highest id.

Make sure to run a quick pg_dump first!

BEGIN;
-- protect against concurrent inserts while you update the counter
LOCK TABLE your_table IN EXCLUSIVE MODE;
-- Update the sequence
SELECT setval('your_table_id_seq', COALESCE((SELECT MAX(id)+1 FROM your_table), 1), false);
COMMIT;