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Fix Watchtower crash-loop on newer Docker engines: add DOCKER_API_VERSION=1.44
Watchtower 1.7.1's embedded Docker client negotiates API version 1.25, which newer Docker daemons (TrueNAS SCALE, Docker Desktop 4.x+) reject with: "client version 1.25 is too old. Minimum supported API version is 1.44" This causes Watchtower to crash-loop immediately on startup, meaning auto-updates never run. Setting DOCKER_API_VERSION=1.44 as an environment variable forces the client to negotiate at the correct version. Added the env var to both compose examples in the README (the generic compose block and the TrueNAS-specific block), plus an explanatory note so users know why it's there if they encounter the error. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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README.md

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@@ -55,12 +55,16 @@ services:
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watchtower:
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image: containrrr/watchtower
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container_name: watchtower
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environment:
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- DOCKER_API_VERSION=1.44
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volumes:
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- /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
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command: --interval 300 programmarr
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restart: unless-stopped
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```
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> **Note:** The `DOCKER_API_VERSION=1.44` env var is required on newer Docker engines (TrueNAS, Docker Desktop 4.x+). Without it, Watchtower crash-loops with "client version 1.25 is too old".
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Or update manually any time:
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```bash
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watchtower:
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image: containrrr/watchtower
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container_name: watchtower
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environment:
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- DOCKER_API_VERSION=1.44
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volumes:
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- /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
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command: --interval 300 programmarr

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