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Containers reported as started, but none are actually running

Open devslimbr opened this issue 2 months ago • 2 comments

Description

I believe there may be a bug in the latest Docker Desktop updates. When Docker starts, it shows that all containers have been started, but internally none of them are actually running. Every time I need to manually restart all containers for them to work properly.

This issue has occurred in the last two updates.

Reproduce

  1. Start Docker Desktop normally.
  2. Wait until Docker shows that all containers are “running”.
  3. Open the container list in Docker Desktop or run docker ps in the terminal.
  4. Notice that no containers are actually running, even though the UI says they are started.
  5. Manually restart all containers (Restart button or docker restart <container>).
  6. After the manual restart, the containers run normally.

Expected behavior

Docker Desktop should correctly start all containers when it launches.
If the UI indicates that containers are running, they should actually be running in the backend as well (visible with docker ps).
No manual restart of containers should be required.

docker version

Client:
 Version:           28.5.2
 API version:       1.51
 Go version:        go1.25.3
 Git commit:        ecc6942
 Built:             Wed Nov  5 14:45:58 2025
 OS/Arch:           windows/amd64
 Context:           desktop-linux

Server: Docker Desktop 4.51.0 (210443)
 Engine:
  Version:          28.5.2
  API version:      1.51 (minimum version 1.24)
  Go version:       go1.25.3
  Git commit:       89c5e8f
  Built:            Wed Nov  5 14:43:25 2025
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          v1.7.29
  GitCommit:        442cb34bda9a6a0fed82a2ca7cade05c5c749582
 runc:
  Version:          1.3.3
  GitCommit:        v1.3.3-0-gd842d771
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

docker info

Client:
 Version:    28.5.2
 Context:    desktop-linux
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  ai: Docker AI Agent - Ask Gordon (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.9.11
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-ai.exe
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.29.1-desktop.1
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-buildx.exe
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v2.40.3-desktop.1
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-compose.exe
  debug: Get a shell into any image or container (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  0.0.45
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-debug.exe
  desktop: Docker Desktop commands (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-desktop.exe
  extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.31
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-extension.exe
  init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.4.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-init.exe
  mcp: Docker MCP Plugin (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.27.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-mcp.exe
  model: Docker Model Runner (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.1.46
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-model.exe
  offload: Docker Offload (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.5.17
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-offload.exe
  sandbox: Docker Sandbox (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.5.3
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-sandbox.exe
  sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
    Version:  0.6.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-sbom.exe
  scout: Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.18.3
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-scout.exe

Server:
 Containers: 9
  Running: 9
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 0
 Images: 64
 Server Version: 28.5.2
 Storage Driver: overlay2
  Backing Filesystem: extfs
  Supports d_type: true
  Using metacopy: false
  Native Overlay Diff: true
  userxattr: false
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
 Cgroup Version: 2
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local splunk syslog
 CDI spec directories:
  /etc/cdi
  /var/run/cdi
 Discovered Devices:
  cdi: docker.com/gpu=webgpu
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 nvidia runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: 442cb34bda9a6a0fed82a2ca7cade05c5c749582
 runc version: v1.3.3-0-gd842d771
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: builtin
  cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 6.6.87.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: x86_64
 CPUs: 4
 Total Memory: 7.757GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: 5f1efcaf-3a11-4635-bbd8-3a39c10f9a3e
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 HTTP Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 HTTPS Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 No Proxy: hubproxy.docker.internal
 Labels:
  com.docker.desktop.address=npipe://\\.\pipe\docker_cli
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
  ::1/128
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false

Diagnostics ID

2B1B2458-D36C-44B3-A2E8-7D8F4E589B8C/20251123191026

Additional Info

No response

devslimbr avatar Nov 23 '25 19:11 devslimbr

Issue persists on Docker Desktop v4.53.0, except restarting the container does not have the same success. Upon restarting the Docker engine:

(HTTP Code 502) unexpected -

Upon instead attempting to docker compose down before restarting the Docker engine: (exact reproduction steps unclear)

Cannot remove Docker Compose application. Reason: compose [down --remove-orphans] exit status 1. Container container4 Stopping Container container4 Stopped Container container4 Removing Container container4 Removed Container container3 Stopping Container container3 Stopped Container container3 Removing Container container3 Removed Container container2 Stopping Container container2 Error while Stopping request returned 502 Bad Gateway for API route and version http://%2F%2F.%2Fpipe%2FdockerDesktopLinuxEngine/v1.51/containers/0eeb3f9560f5faedef48b46f254186250a88343fcca4b71e51891d263355ff03/stop, check if the server supports the requested API version

docker run nginx hangs, docker network create testy hangs, docker container ls lists no containers in spite of them showing as created in Docker Desktop. I was able to run one fresh container on a network I'd previously created, but only from a locally built image. Sometimes I can't delete images, and sometimes Docker Compose can't create networks.

I don't believe the issue is containers not starting, I believe this is a deeper issue with the Docker engine API. Good luck to the devs, I would not want to be in their shoes.

Vessel9817 avatar Nov 29 '25 22:11 Vessel9817

Restarting the device resolved my issue, so mine was probably a separate issue. Apologies for my ignorance.

Vessel9817 avatar Nov 30 '25 06:11 Vessel9817