Jellyfin Server has encountered an error and was not able to start.

[Nik]

I backed up my server (ProgramData > Jellyfin) then upgraded to 10.11.4 on Windows 11. Was working great until a reboot then continually got the error: 

Could not start jellyfin server process after the specified wait period

Uninstalled, including Program Data, because I had my pre-upgrade backup. Did a fresh install of 10.11.4. For troubleshooting purposes, I tried to run Jellyfin before replacing the ProgramData > Jellyfin folder and still got the same error. Then I tried replacing the folder with the backup and still got errors 

Here are the logs

Jellyfin Server has encountered an error and was not able to start.
You can download the current log file here.
12/4/2025 5:45:05 PM -08:00 - Error while starting server
12/4/2025 5:45:04 PM -08:00 - An exception occurred while iterating over the results of a query for context type '"Jellyfin.Database.Implementations.JellyfinDbContext"'." ""Microsoft.Data.Sqlite.SqliteException (0x80004005): SQLite Error 11: 'database disk image is malformed'. at Microsoft.Data.Sqlite.SqliteException.ThrowExceptionForRC(Int32 rc, sqlite3 db) at Microsoft.Data.Sqlite.SqliteDataReader.NextResult() at Microsoft.Data.Sqlite.SqliteCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior) at Microsoft.Data.Sqlite.SqliteCommand.ExecuteDbDataReader(CommandBehavior behavior) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Storage.RelationalCommand.ExecuteReader(RelationalCommandParameterObject parameterObject) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.RelationalShapedQueryCompilingExpressionVisitor.ShaperProcessingExpressionVisitor.<PopulateSplitIncludeCollection>g__InitializeReader|25_1[TIncludingEntity,TIncludedEntity](RelationalQueryContext queryContext, RelationalCommandResolver relationalCommandResolver, IReadOnlyList1 readerColumns, Boolean detailedErrorsEnabled) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.RelationalShapedQueryCompilingExpressionVisitor.ShaperProcessingExpressionVisitor.<>c__252.<PopulateSplitIncludeCollection>b__25_0(ValueTuple4 tup) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.ExecutionStrategyExtensions.<>c__DisplayClass12_02.<Execute>b__0(DbContext _, TState s) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Storage.NonRetryingExecutionStrategy.Execute[TState,TResult](TState state, Func3 operation, Func3 verifySucceeded) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.ExecutionStrategyExtensions.Execute[TState,TResult](IExecutionStrategy strategy, TState state, Func2 operation, Func2 verifySucceeded) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.RelationalShapedQueryCompilingExpressionVisitor.ShaperProcessingExpressionVisitor.PopulateSplitIncludeCollection[TIncludingEntity,TIncludedEntity](Int32 collectionId, RelationalQueryContext queryContext, IExecutionStrategy executionStrategy, RelationalCommandResolver relationalCommandResolver, IReadOnlyList1 readerColumns, Boolean detailedErrorsEnabled, SplitQueryResultCoordinator resultCoordinator, Func3 childIdentifier, IReadOnlyList1 identifierValueComparers, Func5 innerShaper, Action3 relatedDataLoaders, INavigationBase inverseNavigation, Action2 fixup, Boolean trackingQuery) at lambda_method178(Closure, QueryContext, IExecutionStrategy, SplitQueryResultCoordinator) at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query.Internal.SplitQueryingEnumerable1.Enumerator.MoveNext()"
12/4/2025 5:45:04 PM -08:00 - Failed executing DbCommand ("4"ms) [Parameters=[""], CommandType='Text', CommandTimeout='30']" ""SELECT \"p\".\"Id\", \"p\".\"Kind\", \"p\".\"Permission_Permissions_Guid\", \"p\".\"RowVersion\", \"p\".\"UserId\", \"p\".\"Value\", \"u\".\"Id\", \"i\".\"Id\" FROM \"Users\" AS \"u\" LEFT JOIN \"ImageInfos\" AS \"i\" ON \"u\".\"Id\" = \"i\".\"UserId\" INNER JOIN \"Permissions\" AS \"p\" ON \"u\".\"Id\" = \"p\".\"UserId\" ORDER BY \"u\".\"Id\", \"i\".\"Id\""
12/4/2025 5:45:02 PM -08:00 - Migrate stage CoreInitialisation.
12/4/2025 5:45:02 PM -08:00 - There are 0 migrations for stage CoreInitialisation.


12/4/2025 5:45:00 PM -08:00 - Migrate stage PreInitialisation.
12/4/2025 5:45:01 PM -08:00 - There are 0 migrations for stage PreInitialisation.


12/4/2025 5:45:00 PM -08:00 - Migration Startup
12/4/2025 5:45:00 PM -08:00 - Initialise Migration service.


12/4/2025 5:44:59 PM -08:00 - Migration Service
12/4/2025 5:44:59 PM -08:00 - Storage Check
12/4/2025 5:44:59 PM -08:00 - Storage path C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server (Fixed) successfully checked with 171.6GiB free which is over the minimum of 2GiB.
12/4/2025 5:44:59 PM -08:00 - Check path C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server for storage capacity
12/4/2025 5:44:59 PM -08:00 - Storage path C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\cache (Fixed) successfully checked with 171.6GiB free which is over the minimum of 2GiB.
12/4/2025 5:44:59 PM -08:00 - Check path C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\cache for storage capacity
12/4/2025 5:44:59 PM -08:00 - Storage path C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\data` (Fixed) successfully checked with 171.6GiB free which is over the minimum of 2GiB.
12/4/2025 5:44:59 PM -08:00 - Check path C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\data
for storage capacity

When I downloaded the "Current Log File" it was from October 26, 2025, which may have been when I made that backup, idk

2025-10-26 00:00:00.010 -07:00] [INF] [22] Jellyfin.Plugin.PlaybackReporting.TaskCleanDb: Playback Reporting Data Trim
[2025-10-26 00:00:00.027 -07:00] [INF] [22] Jellyfin.Plugin.PlaybackReporting.TaskCleanDb: MaxDataAge : 3
[2025-10-26 00:00:00.043 -07:00] [INF] [22] Jellyfin.Plugin.PlaybackReporting.Data.ActivityRepository: DeleteOldData : "delete from PlaybackActivity where DateCreated < '2025-07-26 00:00:00.0438925'"
[2025-10-26 00:00:00.046 -07:00] [INF] [22] Emby.Server.Implementations.ScheduledTasks.TaskManager: "Playback Reporting Trim Db" Completed after 0 minute(s) and 0 seconds
[2025-10-26 00:00:01.014 -07:00] [INF] [127] Emby.Server.Implementations.ScheduledTasks.TaskManager: Daily trigger for "Playback Reporting Trim Db" set to fire at 2025-10-27 00:00:00.000 -07:00, which is 23:59:58.9861476 from now.
[2025-10-26 02:37:40.790 -07:00] [INF] [132] Emby.Server.Implementations.ScheduledTasks.TaskManager: "Clean Log Directory" Completed after 0 minute(s) and 0 seconds
[2025-10-26 02:37:40.865 -07:00] [INF] [112] Emby.Server.Implementations.ScheduledTasks.Tasks.OptimizeDatabaseTask: Optimizing and vacuuming jellyfin.db...
[2025-10-26 02:37:40.867 -07:00] [INF] [132] Emby.Server.Implementations.ScheduledTasks.TaskManager: "Clean Transcode Directory" Completed after 0 minute(s) and 0 seconds
[2025-10-26 02:37:40.919 -07:00] [INF] [112] Emby.Server.Implementations.ScheduledTasks.Tasks.OptimizeDatabaseTask: jellyfin.db optimized successfully!
[2025-10-26 02:37:40.922 -07:00] [INF] [112] Emby.Server.Implementations.ScheduledTasks.TaskManager: "Optimize database" Completed after 0 minute(s) and 0 seconds
[2025-10-26 02:37:41.011 -07:00] [INF] [112] Emby.Server.Implementations.ScheduledTasks.TaskManager: "TasksRefreshChannels" Completed after 0 minute(s) and 0 seconds
[2025-10-26 02:37:41.136 -07:00] [INF] [119] Emby.Server.Implementations.ScheduledTasks.TaskManager: "Download missing lyrics" Completed after 0 minute(s) and 0 seconds
[2025-10-26 02:37:41.224 -07:00] [INF] [18] Emby.Server.Implementations.ScheduledTasks.TaskManager: "Clean Cache Directory" Completed after 0 minute(s) and 0 seconds
[2025-10-26 02:37:43.933 -07:00] [INF] [18] Jellyfin.LiveTv.Guide.GuideManager: Refreshing guide with 7 days of guide data
[2025-10-26 02:37:43.940 -07:00] [INF] [18] Emby.Server.Implementations.ScheduledTasks.TaskManager: "Refresh Guide" Completed after 0 minute(s) and 3 seconds
[2025-10-26 02:37:43.998 -07:00] [INF] [18] Emby.Server.Implementations.ScheduledTasks.TaskManager: "Update Plugins" Completed after 0 minute(s) and 3 seconds
[2025-10-26 14:38:13.339 -07:00] [INF] [100] Jellyfin.Api.Auth.CustomAuthenticationHandler: AuthenticationScheme: "CustomAuthentication" was forbidden.
[2025-10-26 15:07:31.344 -07:00] [WRN] [108] MediaBrowser.Controller.Entities.BaseItem: Unable to find linked item at path "D:\S\Film\The Karnival Kid (1929)\The Karnival Kid (1929).mp4"
[2025-10-26 15:07:31.354 -07:00] [WRN] [17] MediaBrowser.Controller.Entities.BaseItem: Unable to find linked item at path "D:\S\Film\The Karnival Kid (1929)\The Karnival Kid (1929).mp4"

There were pages of this same error for different videos all of which are accessible via the path listed when playing them directly through File Explorer

[2025-10-26 15:10:09.845 -07:00] [WRN] [115] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketConnection: WS "[REDACTED IP]" error receiving data: "The remote party closed the WebSocket connection without completing the close handshake."
[2025-10-26 15:10:09.856 -07:00] [INF] [115] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "[REDACTED IP]" closed

Tia for any help on this! Was really looking forward to doing a group watch of some holiday movies as I'm not able to go home for Christmas this year

[Nik]

UPDATE: Reverted to 10.10.7, again with a complete uninstall, and am getting the same error

Additionally, the web browser client is giving error:

UNABLE TO CONNECT

Firefox can't establish a connection to server at local host:8096

My inbound rule allowing Jellyfin is active, so idk what is going on here. I even temporarily disabled the firewall to see if it was the issue, but I still couldn't connect. (Firewall is back on now, obviously)