Management

Managing containers

Task	Command
Start all services	`docker compose up -d`
Stop all services	`docker compose down`
View logs (all)	`docker compose logs -f`
View web logs only	`docker compose logs -f web`
Restart web container	`docker compose restart web`
Open a shell in the container	`docker compose exec web bash`
Apply database migrations	`docker compose exec web php scripts/migrate.php`

Always use docker compose down (without -v) to stop containers. Adding -v deletes all data volumes including your database.

Backups

Database backup

docker compose exec -T db mariadb-dump \
  -u propops_user -p"your_db_password" propops \
  > backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

Full data backup

Back up the entire docker-data/ directory to capture uploads, configuration, and database files:

tar -czf propops-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz docker-data/

Scheduled backups

Add to your crontab for nightly automatic backups:

crontab -e

# Database backup at 2am
0 2 * * * cd /path/to/PropOps-Web && docker compose exec -T db mariadb-dump -u propops_user -p"your_db_password" propops > /backups/db-$(date +\%Y\%m\%d).sql

# Full data backup at 3am
0 3 * * * tar -czf /backups/propops-$(date +\%Y\%m\%d).tar.gz /path/to/PropOps-Web/docker-data/

Troubleshooting

Containers won't start

Check for port conflicts — another process may already be using port 8080 or 3306:

sudo lsof -i :8080
sudo lsof -i :3306

Review container logs for the specific error:

docker compose logs web
docker compose logs db

Database connection refused

The db container may still be initialising. Check its status:

docker compose ps

If the database shows starting, wait 30–60 seconds and try again. On the very first boot, MariaDB needs time to apply the schema and migrations.Also verify that the DB_HOST, DB_NAME, DB_USER, and DB_PASS values in your .env match the environment section in docker-compose.yml.

File uploads failing

Check that the uploads directory is owned by www-data:

docker compose exec web ls -la /var/www/html/uploads

The entrypoint script sets ownership automatically, but if you manually created directories on the host they may have incorrect permissions. Fix with:

docker compose exec web chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/uploads

If using a reverse proxy, also check that client_max_body_size is set to at least 50M in your Nginx configuration.

Push notifications not working

Ensure the following variables are set in your .env:

WEB_PUSH_ENABLED=true
VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY
VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY
VAPID_SUBJECT

HTTPS is required for push notifications — they will not work over plain HTTP.

Emails not sending

Test your SMTP configuration from inside the container:

docker compose exec web php scripts/test-email.php you@yourcompany.com

Verify that APP_URL is set to your public HTTPS URL. Email links are built from this value.

Lost PII encryption keys

If you have lost your docker-data/config/.env file and the PII_ENCRYPTION_KEY or PII_HMAC_KEY values, encrypted data in the database (names, emails, phone numbers) and encrypted job files (documents, photos, videos, GDPR reports) cannot be decrypted. There is no recovery method.Always back up docker-data/config/.env to a secure location.

Get Started

Installation

Core Features

Communication

Dashboard & Analytics

Configuration

Platform

Security & Compliance

Managing containers

Backups

Database backup

Full data backup

Scheduled backups

Troubleshooting

​Managing containers

​Backups

​Database backup

​Full data backup

​Scheduled backups

​Troubleshooting

Managing containers

Backups

Database backup

Full data backup

Scheduled backups

Troubleshooting