Troubleshooting

If you are using an earlier version please use sharelatex instead of overleaf in path names.

Running Overleaf with an NFS filesystem

Mounting a NFS filesystem in an Overleaf container is technically possible, but it’s not recommended and can result in different types of performance errors.

One common error that compiles see is:

EBUSY: resource busy or locked, unlink '/var/lib/overleaf/data/compiles/62f3d57bef7cf9005c364e75-62f3d57bef7cf9005c364e7a/.nfs573663533034825247625441'

In particular we advise against using NFS backed filesystems for ephemeral data, like the directories used for compilation data. We recommend using a local scratch disk, preferably a local SSD for the following directories.

For docker-compose based setups, we suggest just overriding the bind-mount from NFS, which avoids changing paths in the application. Here’s an example of a docker-compose config excerpt with the use of a scratch disk that is mounted at /scratch:

docker-compose excerpt

services:
  sharelatex:
    environment:
      SANDBOXED_COMPILES_HOST_DIR: /scratch/compiles/
    volumes:
      - nfs:/var/lib/overleaf/data
      - /scratch/cache/:/var/lib/overleaf/data/cache
      - /scratch/compiles/:/var/lib/overleaf/data/compiles
      - /scratch/output/:/var/lib/overleaf/data/output
      - /scratch/tmp/:/var/lib/overleaf/tmp

There is no need to migrate any existing files from the NFS to their new home after the update. The LaTeX compiler can recreate all the files with a full compilation run again.

For more details see: https://docs.overleaf.com/on-premises/support/troubleshooting#running-overleaf-with-an-nfs-filesystem

Running Overleaf on Windows or macOS results in the mongo service not starting

If you’re running Overleaf on Windows or macOS, the mongo service may fail to restart, with an error:

Example error

Failed to start up WiredTiger under any compatibility version.
Reason: 1: Operation not permitted

To avoid this error, the data needs to be stored in a volume rather than a bind mounted directory (see the mongo image documentation for more details: https://github.com/docker-library/docs/blob/master/mongo/content.md#where-to-store-data). To store data inside Docker volumes mounted inside the MongoDB and Redis containers, add the following to config/docker-compose.override.yml (create this file if it doesn’t exist yet):

config/docker-compose.override.yml

volumes:
  mongo-data:
  redis-data:

services:
  mongo:
    volumes:
      - mongo-data:/data/db

  redis:
    volumes:
      - redis-data:/data

For more information see: https://docs.overleaf.com/on-premises/support/troubleshooting#running-overleaf-on-windows-or-macos-results-in-the-mongoservice-not-starting

Upgrading to Redis 6.2 results in a restart loop

Use the docker logs redis command to output a copy of the logs.

If you see the line Fatal: Can't initialize Background Jobs, the full output will look something like this:

Redis log example

1:M 11 Feb 2024 15:19:22.609 # Server initialized
1:M 11 Feb 2024 15:19:22.609 # Fatal: Can't initialize Background Jobs.
1:C 11 Feb 2024 15:19:26.055 # oO0OoO0OoO0Oo Redis is starting oO0OoO0OoO0Oo

This may be related to the version of Docker currently in use. Updating to a version >= 20.10.10 should resolve this issue.

For more information, see the Redis upstream issue: https://github.com/redis/redis/issues/12362

Reference: https://docs.overleaf.com/on-premises/support/troubleshooting#upgrading-to-redis-6.2-results-in-a-restart-loop

Incorrect orientation of template gallery preview/thumbnail images

On occasion, the preview/thumbnail images generated by Server Pro can be created in the wrong orientation and require manual intervention to correct. These images are stored in /var/lib/overleaf/data/template_files/ (>= 5.0.3) and /var/lib/sharelatex/data/template_files/ (earlier).

We recommend backing up this folder before making any changes.

You’ll need to follow the steps below for each affected template:

Find the template IDNavigate to your instance’s template gallery (/templates/all), open an affected template, and copy the ID from the URL (for example: https://your-instance-url/templates/6645d346c224815e9460a695).Run the correction commandRun the following command from the Docker host (replace the template ID with the one you copied and update the path if appropriate):docker exec sharelatex /bin/bash -c “mogrify -rotate 90 /var/lib/overleaf/data/template_files/6645d346c224815e9460a695_*{thumbnail,preview}”

Reference: https://docs.overleaf.com/on-premises/support/troubleshooting#incorrect-orientation-of-template-gallery-preview-thumbnail-images

Please verify that you have enabled system calls. For pdflatex, this is 'pdflatex -shell-escape'.

The \write18 command is disabled by default in the Community Edition due to all compiles happening within the same sharelatex container; this is the safer default.

If you wish to enable it for pdflatex, create a latexmkrc file in the root of your project with the following content:

latexmkrc

$pdflatex = 'pdflatex --shell-escape';

Then try recompiling.

Reference: https://docs.overleaf.com/on-premises/support/troubleshooting#please-verify-that-you-have-enabled-system-calls.-for-pdflatex-this-is-pdflatex-shell-escape