Recovering Deleted MySQL Data from Docker Volumes – Step‑by‑Step Guide

The author wanted to test MySQL gap locks, discovered an old MySQL container on a server, forgot its password, and removed the container with docker rm -f, only to realize a project still depends on that database.

Step 1 – Find the deleted container’s volume: Navigate to Docker’s volume directory, list volumes, and locate the mysql.ibd file that belongs to MySQL. Example commands:

# cd /var/lib/docker/volumes/
ll
find . -name mysql.ibd

Identify the correct volume by creation time and by inspecting its contents for the database name.

Step 2 – Launch a new container with the same image: Use the same MySQL image version to start a fresh container.

docker run -itd -p 3306:3306 -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=xxxxxx mysql:8.0

Step 3 – Attach the old volume to the new container: Inspect the new container to obtain its volume name, stop the container, replace its volume directory with the one found in Step 1, and restart the container.

# docker inspect <new_container_name>
# docker stop <new_container_name>
# cd /var/lib/docker/volumes/
# rm -rf <new_container_volume_name>
# cp -r <old_volume_path> <new_container_volume_name>
# docker start <new_container_name>

After these actions the MySQL instance starts with the original data, effectively recovering the lost database.

Source: juejin.cn/post/7303785504004030515