Error AtlasError Documentation and ResolutionDocker documented errors
Browse Docker error messages and Docker troubleshooting guides across Docker Engine, Docker Desktop, registry access, networking, rootless mode, and container runtime workflows.
This Docker error reference is designed for users searching exact Docker error messages, error codes, and clear how-to-fix guidance.
Docker searches are often highly literal. Users usually arrive with an exact daemon error, registry message, mount failure, or container runtime problem and want to know whether the issue is local configuration, network access, image state, or host permissions.
This hub is written to support both use cases: exact-match search for a copied Docker error message and broader browsing by subsystem such as Docker Desktop, Docker Engine, registry access, networking, and volumes.
Tool
Docker
failed to solveDocker build failed to solvecontainers: Docker BuildKit failed while resolving a build stage, file copy, or dependency command, so the image does not complete.
Loading the build result for multi-platform images is not supportedDocker Buildx could not load a multi-platform build result locallybuildx: Docker Buildx cannot load a multi-platform image directly into the local image store in this workflow, so the build must be pushed to a registry or exported differently.
Cannot connect to the Docker daemonDocker client cannot connect to the Docker daemondaemon: The Docker client could not reach a running Docker daemon, either because the daemon is not started locally or because the client is pointed at an unreachable host.
Compose profile reference errorDocker Compose profile references a service that is not enabledcompose: Docker Compose can fail when the active profile set excludes a referenced service, because profile filtering does not automatically enable linked or shared-resource dependencies.
port is already allocatedDocker could not bind the published port because it is already allocatednetworking: Docker could not start the container with the requested published port because another process or container was already bound to that host port.
unable to configure the Docker daemon with file /etc/docker/daemon.jsonDocker daemon failed to start because daemon.json conflicts with startup flagsdaemon: Docker found the same daemon setting in both daemon.json and startup flags, causing the daemon to fail during startup because the configuration sources conflict.
bind: invalid argumentDocker Desktop failed to start because the Unix socket path was too longvolumes: Docker Desktop could not create required Unix sockets because the home directory path exceeded the platform socket path length limit on Mac or Linux.
Docker Desktop Access DeniedDocker Desktop failed to start with Access Deniedstartup: Docker Desktop could not complete startup because required files, services, or installation paths were blocked by permissions or security tooling on Windows.
Docker.app is damaged and can't be openedDocker Desktop on macOS reported Docker.app is damagedinstallation: macOS marked Docker Desktop as damaged after a partial or interrupted copy during DMG-based installation, often because another application was calling the Docker CLI while the app was being installed or updated.
Incompatible CPU detectedDocker Desktop reported an incompatible CPU on macOSinstallation: Docker Desktop determined that the Mac does not provide the required virtualization support or that the wrong architecture build of Docker Desktop was installed.
HCS_E_HYPERV_NOT_INSTALLEDDocker Desktop reported an unexpected WSL error because Hyper-V support was unavailablestartup: Docker Desktop could not start its WSL 2 environment because required virtualization or Hyper-V related components were disabled or unavailable on the host system.
access to a volume mount is deniedDocker Desktop volume mount access was deniedvolumes: Docker Desktop could not access files from the mounted host path because the project directory was not shared with Docker Desktop.
The media is write protectedDocker Desktop with Windows Containers failed because the media is write protectedstartup: Docker Desktop could not start or run Windows Containers because a Windows policy mounted required volumes as read-only.
failed to register layerDocker failed to register layer because lchown returned invalid argumentinstallation: Docker could not register an image layer during pull because the rootless environment does not have enough subuid or subgid entries for the image being unpacked.
failed to register layerDocker failed to register layer because lchown returned operation not permittedinstallation: Docker could not unpack an image layer in rootless mode because the Docker data directory is on NFS, where the required ownership changes are not permitted.
The build was cancelled or exceeded the maximum execution timeDocker Hub autobuild exceeded the maximum execution timebuild: Docker Hub automated builds have a fixed execution limit and are cancelled when the build runs too long, producing the same log message used for an actively cancelled build.
429 pull rate limitDocker Hub pull rate limit reachedregistry: Docker Hub blocked a pull request because the account or source IP exceeded the current pull rate limit for the registry.
Too Many RequestsDocker Hub returned Too Many Requestsregistry: Docker Hub rejected requests because the client hit the abuse rate limit, which is different from the normal pull rate limit and is often caused by aggressive automated access patterns.
Unexpected status code 500Docker Hub returned unexpected status code 500registry: Docker Hub returned a server-side error while processing the request, which usually indicates a temporary service issue rather than a local configuration problem.
malformed HTTP responseDocker received a malformed HTTP response from a registryregistry: Docker attempted to talk to a registry over plain HTTP while the registry expected HTTPS, producing a malformed HTTP response during the connection handshake.
could not get XDG_RUNTIME_DIRDocker rootless mode could not get XDG_RUNTIME_DIRdaemon: Rootless Docker could not start because XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is not set, which prevents it from creating runtime files and sockets in the expected user runtime directory.
cannot expose privileged portDocker rootless mode could not publish a privileged portrootless: Rootless Docker could not bind a host port below 1024 because privileged ports require extra kernel or capability configuration in rootless mode.
No subuid ranges found for userDocker rootless mode could not set up UID or GID mappingrootless: Rootless Docker could not configure UID and GID mappings because /etc/subuid and /etc/subgid do not contain the required ranges for the current user.
failed to start the child: no space left on deviceDocker rootless mode failed because max_user_namespaces is too smallrootless: Rootless Docker could not start because the system limit for user namespaces is too low for the rootless setup.
failed to start the child: operation not permittedDocker rootless mode failed to start because unprivileged user namespaces are disabledrootless: Rootless Docker could not start because the kernel setting for unprivileged user namespace creation is disabled.
read unix @->/run/systemd/private: connection reset by peerDocker rootless run failed because the user dbus daemon is not runningrootless: Docker rootless could not create the container on a cgroup v2 host because the user dbus daemon was not active.
mount destination not absoluteDocker run failed in Git Bash because the mount destination was not absolutevolumes: Docker Desktop received a malformed mount destination because Git Bash rewrote the path expression before Docker evaluated the bind mount.
Exit code 125docker run failed with exit code 125containers: Exit code 125 means docker run failed before the container command executed, usually because the Docker invocation or daemon-level container setup was invalid.
Exit code 126docker run failed with exit code 126 because the command could not be invokedruntime: Exit code 126 means Docker found the specified container command, but it could not be invoked as an executable inside the container.
Exit code 127docker run failed with exit code 127 because the command was not foundruntime: Exit code 127 means the container started, but the command Docker tried to run could not be found inside the image.
Access is deniedDocker volume mount failed in Git Bash with Access is deniedvolumes: Docker Desktop on Windows could not interpret the volume mount path correctly because Git Bash rewrote the command-line path before it reached Docker.
Tool
Docker Build
DuplicateStageNameDocker build found duplicate stage names in the Dockerfilebuild errors: Docker build checks found more than one stage using the same stage name, which makes the Dockerfile ambiguous and harder to build correctly.
NoEmptyContinuationDocker build found empty continuation lines in the Dockerfilebuild errors: Docker build checks found empty continuation lines that may become hard errors in future Dockerfile parsing behavior.
ConsistentInstructionCasingDocker build found inconsistent instruction casing in the Dockerfilebuild errors: Docker build checks found a mix of uppercase and lowercase Dockerfile instructions, which reduces consistency and may fail linting policies.
StageNameCasingDocker build found stage names that are not lowercasebuild errors: Docker build checks found Dockerfile stage aliases that are not lowercase, which violates the build rule for stage naming consistency.
Tool
Docker Buildx
ReservedStageNameDocker Buildx found a reserved stage name in the Dockerfilebuildx: Docker Buildx build checks found a stage alias that uses a reserved word and should not be used as a stage name.
InvalidDefaultArgInFromDocker Buildx found an invalid default argument in FROMbuildx: Docker Buildx build checks found a default build argument in a FROM instruction that results in an invalid image reference or unsupported default pattern.
UndefinedArgInFromDocker Buildx found an undefined build argument in FROMbuildx: Docker Buildx build checks found a Dockerfile FROM instruction that references a build argument that is not defined.
JSONArgsRecommendedDocker Buildx recommends JSON-form command argumentsbuildx: Docker Buildx build checks recommend using JSON-form arguments for certain Dockerfile instructions to avoid shell parsing surprises.
Tool
Docker Compose
Circular references with `extends` are not supportedDocker Compose does not support circular extends referencescompose: Docker Compose found a circular reference between services that use extends, so the configuration graph cannot be resolved safely.
model is invalid regarding the depends_on constraint of serviceDocker Compose explicit profile target is invalid because required dependencies are missingcompose: Docker Compose found that directly targeting a service under a profile still does not satisfy the full dependency model because a required dependency remains inactive.
Valid profiles names follow the regex formatDocker Compose profile name is invalidcompose: Docker Compose requires profile names to match a specific pattern, and invalid names can break profile-based stack configuration.
service model is invalid regarding the depends_on constraintDocker Compose service model is invalid because profiles break depends_oncompose: Docker Compose found that enabled service profiles make the dependency model invalid, so a service depends on another service that is not part of the active model.