Changing column name on primary key column makes Admin inaccessable

Questions and Answers
1
System Information
  • Strapi Version: 4.0.7
  • Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS
  • Database: PG 13.4
  • Node Version: v12.22.7
  • NPM Version: 6.14.15
  • Yarn Version: 1.22.17

I was changing my column names and I broke my database in such a way that I cannot load Strapi. I tried logging into Postgres to drop the tables but the table ‘seeds’ did not exist. How do I get Strapi out of this funk? My Strapi Server is not under version control but I did make a backup of the database image.

[2022-03-13 03:32:03.153] debug: ⛔️ Server wasn't able to start properly.
[2022-03-13 03:32:03.155] error: alter table "seeds" alter column "id" drop not null - column "id" is in a primary key
error: alter table "seeds" alter column "id" drop not null - column "id" is in a primary key
    at Parser.parseErrorMessage (/srv/strapi-azure/node_modules/pg-protocol/dist/parser.js:287:98)
    at Parser.handlePacket (/srv/strapi-azure/node_modules/pg-protocol/dist/parser.js:126:29)
    at Parser.parse (/srv/strapi-azure/node_modules/pg-protocol/dist/parser.js:39:38)
    at TLSSocket.<anonymous> (/srv/strapi-azure/node_modules/pg-protocol/dist/index.js:11:42)
    at TLSSocket.emit (events.js:314:20)
    at TLSSocket.EventEmitter.emit (domain.js:483:12)
    at addChunk (_stream_readable.js:297:12)
    at readableAddChunk (_stream_readable.js:272:9)
    at TLSSocket.Readable.push (_stream_readable.js:213:10)
    at TLSWrap.onStreamRead (internal/stream_base_commons.js:188:23)
error Command failed with exit code 1.
2

Is there some sort of safe mode?

3

There is a table in the database that keeps a history of the schema. By manually editing the schema you’ve thrown Strapi out of sync.

You can try to delete the strapi_database_schema table and restart to see if that fixes it.

To be clear there is no way to change the id type or name right now.

4

(If you want to change other field column names you can use this unstable API: Models - Strapi Developer Docs )

5

Thank you for your help. Is there any way version control could have prevented me from having to drop the database?

6

Also, the system shouldn’t allow me to destroy my own db! I will put in a bug report.

7

@DMehaffy that didn’t work. is there a more forcefull way to wipe the database without doing a completely new install? Or, what is the best way to do a completely new install and migrate my connections, plugins, etc.?

8

I created a new database and a new app and started over. Next time I will keep Strapi in version control. It seems the schema is stored in the JavaScript.