[Bug]: Watchtower container keeps stopping

[crispybegs]

Bug Report Checklist

• I checked existing issues and found no duplicates.
• I have reviewed Watchtower's documentation and confirmed compliance with documented configuration specifications.
• I have restarted Docker, re-pulled the latest image, and confirmed that the issue persists.

Bug Description

I have watchtower running on 3 different servers. Every few days I notice that one or all of them stop pulling updates for my services and when I hop into portainer to check I see that the watchtower container has changed from 'healthy' to 'created', and a secondary 'watchtower-old' container has been created and is sitting in an 'exited' state.

I assume this is watchtower updating itself, which is fine, but how can i make the new container spin up into a 'healthy' state automatically. I'm at the point now of having to log in and check watchtower on 3 machines every few days as I don't know whether there are no new updates or watchtower has exited again.

My compose has restart: unless-stopped btw

Steps to Reproduce

i don't know how to reproduce, it just happens

Expected Behavior

watchtower should update itself and start the new container instead of sitting dormant

Watchtower Version

latest

Docker Version

Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:           28.5.1
 API version:       1.51
 Go version:        go1.24.8
 Git commit:        e180ab8
 Built:             Wed Oct  8 12:17:03 2025
 OS/Arch:           linux/amd64
 Context:           default

Server: Docker Engine - Community
 Engine:
  Version:          28.5.1
  API version:      1.51 (minimum version 1.24)
  Go version:       go1.24.8
  Git commit:       f8215cc
  Built:            Wed Oct  8 12:17:03 2025
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          v1.7.28
  GitCommit:        b98a3aace656320842a23f4a392a33f46af97866
 runc:
  Version:          1.3.0
  GitCommit:        v1.3.0-0-g4ca628d1
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

Docker Info (optional)

Docker Compose Configuration

version: "2"

services:
  app:
    image: nickfedor/watchtower 
    hostname: 192.168.1.14
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
    environment:
      - TZ=Europe/Madrid
      - NO_COLOR=true
      - WATCHTOWER_SCHEDULE=0 0 05 * * *
      - WATCHTOWER_INCLUDE_STOPPED=true
      - WATCHTOWER_INCLUDE_RESTARTING=true
      - WATCHTOWER_MONITOR_ONLY=false
      - WATCHTOWER_HTTP_API_UPDATE=true
      - WATCHTOWER_HTTP_API_METRICS=true
      - WATCHTOWER_HTTP_API_TOKEN=mytoken
      - WATCHTOWER_HTTP_API_PERIODIC_POLLS=true
      - DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY=true
      - WATCHTOWER_NOTIFICATIONS=slack 
      - WATCHTOWER_NOTIFICATION_SLACK_HOOK_URL=https://hooks.slack.com/services/[redacted]
      - WATCHTOWER_NOTIFICATION_SLACK_IDENTIFIER=watchtower-NAS 
      - WATCHTOWER_NOTIFICATION_SLACK_CHANNEL=#watchtower
      - WATCHTOWER_CLEANUP=true

Docker CLI Command

Debug Logs

Additional Context

No response

[nicholas-fedor]

This bug report has been converted to a support discussion topic.

Please review the following documentation: https://watchtower.nickfedor.com/v1.16.1/getting-started/updating-watchtower/

In short, Watchtower is behaving as intended to avoid port conflict issues during self-updates.

If you wish to continue having both the API enabled with port 8080 exposed and periodic updates, then it may be worth using the ephemeral self-updates feature that I recently released. It's an experimental option, which uses a sidecar container to orchestrate the self-update.

[nicholas-fedor]

I will need to review separately why you're seeing Watchtower attempting self-updates in your particular configuration.

[crispybegs]

This bug report has been converted to a support discussion topic.

Please review the following documentation: https://watchtower.nickfedor.com/v1.16.1/getting-started/updating-watchtower/

In short, Watchtower is behaving as intended to avoid port conflict issues during self-updates.

If you wish to continue having both the API enabled with port 8080 exposed and periodic updates, then it may be worth using the ephemeral self-updates feature that I recently released. It's an experimental option, which uses a sidecar container to orchestrate the self-update.

ok thanks, so my compose like this?

version: "2"

services:
  app:
    image: nickfedor/watchtower 
    hostname: 192.168.1.14
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
    environment:
      - TZ=Europe/Madrid
      - NO_COLOR=true
      - WATCHTOWER_SCHEDULE=0 0 05 * * *
      - WATCHTOWER_INCLUDE_STOPPED=true
      - WATCHTOWER_INCLUDE_RESTARTING=true
      - WATCHTOWER_MONITOR_ONLY=false
      - WATCHTOWER_HTTP_API_UPDATE=true
      - WATCHTOWER_HTTP_API_METRICS=true
      - WATCHTOWER_HTTP_API_TOKEN=mytoken
      - WATCHTOWER_HTTP_API_PERIODIC_POLLS=true
      - DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY=true
      - WATCHTOWER_NOTIFICATIONS=slack 
      - WATCHTOWER_NOTIFICATION_SLACK_HOOK_URL=https://hooks.slack.com/services/[redacted]
      - WATCHTOWER_NOTIFICATION_SLACK_IDENTIFIER=watchtower-NAS 
      - WATCHTOWER_NOTIFICATION_SLACK_CHANNEL=#watchtower
      - WATCHTOWER_CLEANUP=true
      - WATCHTOWER_EPHEMERAL_SELF_UPDATE=true

[nicholas-fedor]

Yes, adding WATCHTOWER_EPHEMERAL_SELF_UPDATE=true will enable the feature.

[crispybegs]

Yes, adding WATCHTOWER_EPHEMERAL_SELF_UPDATE=true will enable the feature.

this seemed to fix it by the way. the problem hasn't occurred since I added this line, so thank you very much!