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#2126·watchtower

"Error response from daemon: client version 1.25 is too old"

Author: KopfKriegCreated Nov 14, 2025Updated Dec 12, 2025
LabelsType: BugPriority: MediumStatus: Available

Describe the bug

I have two server (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS), both running Docker v29.0.0.

Both are unable to run watchtower, because the run into a loop with the following error message:

watchtower  | time="2025-11-14T02:39:36+01:00" level=error msg="Error response from daemon: client version 1.25 is too old. Minimum supported API version is 1.44, please upgrade your client to a newer version"
watchtower  | time="2025-11-14T02:39:36+01:00" level=info msg="Waiting for the notification goroutine to finish" notify=no
watchtower exited with code 1 (restarting)

Had to stop both watchtower instances and not sure what to do. Everything is up to date already.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Install Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 LTS
  2. Install Docker from docker.com
  3. Run watchtower from containrrr/watchtower:latest
  4. Enjoy the error messages and notification spam (if configured)

Expected behavior

It should work as before, running in the background, updating containers as expected.

Screenshots

No response

Environment

  • Platform: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS & Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Docker Version: 29.0.0

Your logs

[…]
watchtower  | time="2025-11-14T02:44:37+01:00" level=debug msg="Sleeping for a second to ensure the docker api client has been properly initialized."
watchtower  | time="2025-11-14T02:44:38+01:00" level=debug msg="Making sure everything is sane before starting"
watchtower  | time="2025-11-14T02:44:38+01:00" level=debug msg="Retrieving running containers"
watchtower  | time="2025-11-14T02:44:38+01:00" level=error msg="Error response from daemon: client version 1.25 is too old. Minimum supported API version is 1.44, please upgrade your client to a newer version"
watchtower  | time="2025-11-14T02:44:38+01:00" level=info msg="Waiting for the notification goroutine to finish" notify=no
watchtower exited with code 1 (restarting)
watchtower  | time="2025-11-14T02:44:39+01:00" level=debug msg="Sleeping for a second to ensure the docker api client has been properly initialized."
Gracefully Stopping... press Ctrl+C again to force
 Container watchtower  Stopping
 Container watchtower  Stopped

Additional context

No response

Source: containrrr/watchtower

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