PSA: Recommended New Fork for Watchtower

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#1

@bnhf it looks like the watchtower repository might be too old, with newer docker updates. See Incorrect docker version detection · Issue #2122 · containrrr/watchtower · GitHub

I switched to suggested repo and seems to work fine.

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OliveTin EZ-Start: A New Way to Deploy OliveTin-for-Channels Using Just Two Environment Variables to Get Started!
#2

This is the way to go. The containrrr/watchtower repo stopped updates 2 years ago. The GitHub - nicholas-fedor/watchtower: Automate Docker container image updates fork has constant updates and when the docker API version changed his was updated within the day.

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#3

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll update Project One-Click, and the Docker Composes thread soon.

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#4

Thank you! I noticed that my watchtower was experiencing this exact same issue right before I went for a trip so I was wondering how to go about fixing it and ChatGPT hadn’t been helpful. I was going to ask here next!

#5

The beauty of open-source: always somebody that keeps a good thing going. I updated watchtower and everything is looking good so far

#6

I followed the tip here: https://watchtower.nickfedor.com/v1.12.5/getting-started/usage/

My CDVR server is an M1 Mac Mini, so the container image I'm using is: nickfedor/watchtower:armhf-latest

I'm noticing different behavior from the original watchtower though. With that one, the container typically remained stopped. When looking for any updates, I would run it, watch the logs until it finished, and then manually delete any old, unused images. And then the next time I wanted to check for updates, I'd run watchtower again.

With this new version of watchtower, it's always running. I'm not sure the "restart policy" has anything to do with this. But the logs show it's on an every 24-hour schedule instead:

time="2025-12-19T23:29:44Z" level=info msg="Watchtower 1.13.0 using Docker API v1.51"
time="2025-12-19T23:29:44Z" level=info msg="Using no notifications"
time="2025-12-19T23:29:44Z" level=info msg="Next scheduled run: 2025-12-20 23:29:44 UTC in 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds"

I'm not sure I want updates to be applied across the board every 24 hours. I like to read release notes in most cases, check the forums to see if there are any issues, before diving in. What's the correct way to make this new watchtower fork work manually again, instead of automatically on a daily schedule?

#7

Check the Configuration settings https://watchtower.nickfedor.com/v1.12.5/configuration/arguments/ https://watchtower.nickfedor.com/v1.12.5/configuration/arguments/#run_once https://watchtower.nickfedor.com/v1.12.5/configuration/arguments/#monitor_only

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#8

Here is a compose that runs once.

version: "3.9"

services:
  watchtower:
    image: ghcr.io/nicholas-fedor/watchtower:latest
    container_name: watchtower-run-once
    restart: "no"
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
    command: --run-once --cleanup
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#9

Are you saying the more typical env var approach does not work?

services:
  watchtower:
    image: ghcr.io/nicholas-fedor/watchtower:${TAG:-latest}
    container_name: watchtower
    environment:
      - PATH=${PATH:-/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin} 
      - WATCHTOWER_RUN_ONCE=${WATCHTOWER_RUN_ONCE:-true}
    labels:
      - 'com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.enable=true'
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
#10

Oh not at all. I might have an outdated Olivetin (I have 2025.12.19) but it did not use the nicholas-fedor watchtower. So I created my own.

#11

Since this thread originated, I have not used watchtower out of concern that it may break something which has been working. So, I have been re-pulling and updating each stack manually through Portainer.

I'm wondering what this all means to us folks who have previously installed watchtower. I have been using watchtower, as installed by project one-click, for a year or two. Do I need to delete and re-install a different version?

#12

I haven't actually updated it on Project One-Click yet, so I was just trying to get a bead on whether the same compose would work -- with only a change to the image source location.

#13

It should be just a matter of changing the repo in your existing stack -- I assumed that's what people were doing based on the first couple of posts. I'm not in a position to confirm this myself atm.

    image: ghcr.io/nicholas-fedor/watchtower:${TAG:-latest}
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#14

Looks like that did the trick! Thanks!