Traefik stops working, it uses old API version 1.24

Traefik Traefik v3 (latest)
1

After upgrading to docker version 29.0.0, the API version is 1.52 (minimum version 1.44).

Traefik uses 1.24 so it has stopped working

ERR github.com/traefik/traefik/v3/pkg/provider/docker/pdocker.go:156 > Provider error, retrying in 26.370093276s error="Error response from daemon: client version 1.24 is too old. Minimum supported API version is 1.44, please upgrade your client to a newer version" providerName=docker

1 Like
2

Same here after updating packages on my linux server.It was a docker cd packages update.I think they broke something.Let's hope they fixed it soon.I'm using traefik too for reverse proxy.I don't know where is the problem,on the docker or in the traefik.

I've got the same error in traefik logs:

2025-11-11T08:26:54+02:00 ERR Provider error, retrying in 2.637428756s error="Error response from daemon: client version 1.24 is too old. Minimum supported API version is 1.44, please upgrade your client to a newer version" providerName=docker

Check this link too:

Please team treafik fix this issue.

3

Same issue here using docker 29 and traefik v3

4

Debug logs show:

ERR github.com/traefik/traefik/v3/pkg/provider/docker/pdocker.go:85 > Failed to retrieve information of the docker client and server host error="Error response from daemon: client version 1.24 is too old. Minimum supported API version is 1.44, please upgrade your client to a newer version" providerName=docker

It also talks about the version downgrading to 1.24 here:

Am sure the devs will know more about what is going on. Same issue here as well.

I also tried to force API Version via DOCKER_API_VERSION=1.52 (and tried 1.44), but always seemed to downgrade to 1.24. :frowning:

5

See Error response from daemon: client version 1.24 is too old · Issue #12253 · traefik/traefik · GitHub. Help is underway.

1 Like
6

Ouch this was a rough! Just found out my all my websites crashed while I was sleeping because of this.

7

The dynamic file base still works for me; it's just the Traefik label issues. I have to change all my labels to file-based for now.

8

A temporary workaround is downgrading docker-ce (e.g. this command on debian 13: apt install docker-ce=5:28.5.2-1~debian.13~trixie).

2 Likes
9

Yeah this was very rough. I didn’t know how to downgrade docker to specific version. I was very scared :fearful: to use unknown commands provided by Docker’s own AI Gordon. But somehow it worked and I downgraded. Now I am never updating ubuntu unless this issue is resolved.

Please keep me updated.

10

I ran into the same issue yesterday while using Traefik 3.5.6. I had installed Docker from the official Docker package repository (not the Ubuntu-provided one).

After upgrading to Docker 29, the problem appeared. Rolling back to Docker 28.5.2immediately resolved it — everything started working again.

Solutions

1. Downgrade Docker

To revert Docker to version 28.5.2:

sudo systemctl stop docker
sudo systemctl stop containerd

# For Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
sudo apt-get install docker-ce=5:28.5.2-1~ubuntu.24.04~noble \
                     docker-ce-cli=5:28.5.2-1~ubuntu.24.04~noble \
                     docker-ce-rootless-extras=5:28.5.2-1~ubuntu.24.04~noble \
                     containerd.io=1.7.28-2~ubuntu.24.04~noble

# Continue Ubuntu updates while keeping Docker unchanged
sudo apt-mark hold docker-ce docker-ce-cli docker-ce-rootless-extras containerd.io

sudo systemctl start containerd
sudo systemctl start docker

docker --version

This will restore Docker to the previous stable version compatible with your stack.

2. Set Minimum Docker API Version

If you prefer to keep Docker 29, you can set the minimum API version so Traefik works correctly.

  1. Create or edit the systemd override file:
sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d/min_api_version.conf
  1. Add the following content:
[Service]
Environment="DOCKER_MIN_API_VERSION=1.24"
  1. Reload systemd and restart Docker:
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart docker
  1. Verify the environment variable is applied:
sudo systemctl show docker | grep DOCKER_MIN_API_VERSION

Both methods work, but downgrading Docker is usually the fastest way to restore a broken stack, while setting the minimum API version allows you to keep Docker 29 but maintain compatibility with Traefik.

1 Like
11

Also working solution.

Set min-api-version in your Docker daemon.json file.

{
  "min-api-version": "1.24"
}

Solution taken from https://www.docker.com/blog/docker-engine-version-29/

2 Likes
12

As root, on vm :

jq '. + {"min-api-version": "1.24"}' /etc/docker/daemon.json | tee /tmp/daemon.json

  mv -f /tmp/daemon.json /etc/docker/daemon.json

  systemctl restart docker
13

Latest Traefik release v3.6.1 should fix the issue with Docker API