Auto-updating Docker containers is a trap you're setting for yourself

Published Oct 15, 2026, 10:30 AM EDT Patrick Campanale has been in the tech space for well over a decade, specializing in PC/gaming news and reviews, as well as maker-focused products to build small businesses. With a start in technology back in 2010 surrounding the Palm/webOS ecosystem, Patrick spent his formative years developing mobile applications as well as blogging for various publications, eventually leading to starting his own website in 2014. After running a technology blog for a few years, he stepped out of that role and into the world of high-end custom PC manufacturing and building, with a focus on YouTube video production and overclocking. Then, in 2017, Patrick joined the 9to5Toys team as an editor/writer/reviewer with over 14,000 articles being published during his time there, ranging from deals and roundups to in-depth reviews on the latest technology, video games, 3D printers, and more. In his free time, Patrick loves to create projects from wood using various robots and methods, including leveraging the technologies of CNCs and lasers. If Patrick isn't working on a computer or playing video games, he's likely in his 2-car garage workshop creating something unique. In addition to all this, Patrick is also the media director at his local church where he feels God has called him to serve, and he loves every minute of it. Automatically updating your Docker containers might sound like the peace of mind you've been wanting—it's anything but that. I tried auto-updating Docker containers in my homelab, and it ended in disaster one too many times. Here's what happened and how I run Docker in my homelab now. Auto-updating containers is something that I have wanted for years I could do one-click updates on Unraid, but never auto updates When I first started using Docker, I imagined it was like every other piece of software I had used and automatic updates would just be a given. My first experience with Docker was on Unraid, and it was almost that way. By default, Unraid simply gives a button to update an individual container as well as a button to update all containers at one time. There is a community plugin to automatically update containers, but it wasn't as popular several years ago when I first started out. This was somewhat annoying to me, as I just wanted my software always up to date, but I didn't realize that wasn't always the best thing. Automatically updating containers seems like the smart move, right? One bad update can break your entire homelab For years, updated software was secure software, and I just assumed that applied to Docker containers. And it does—but with a caveat. You see, Docker containers function quite differently from normal software. The container is basically a little virtual machine of sorts, and it references files on your storage for configuration and other functions. However, something that I didn't realize about Docker at first is that many containers are updated very often. Sometimes even multiple times a day. Not every container is like this, but many, many self-hosted tools are. While using Unraid, I would simply click "Update All" whenever I saw there were updates available for my containers. One day, however, that didn't end so well. You see, I run a lot of Docker containers. At one point it was well over 50, and a bad VPN container update took down several of my other services that depended on it. It took me a while to figure out what actually happened, and then I had to figure out how to roll back. It was a bit nerve-wracking when it first happened, but I did eventually figure it out. You see, that container had a bad update shipped and that update simply broke compatibility somewhere down the line. I updated without knowing what I was getting into, and paid the price for it. Thankfully it didn't randomly auto update. You see, I eventually moved off of Unraid and set up auto updates, and that ended up even worse. Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek My household relies on Home Assistant to power many of the smart devices in the house. I bring all of those devices through Home Assistant into HomeKit so I can use Siri automations. One of those automations is simply called "Goodnight" and it shuts the house down for the night. It turns all the lights off, flips the fan on at a certain power level in the main bedroom, locks the doors, and does a few other things. This automation relies heavily on Home Assistant, and if Home Assistant doesn't work, I don't have easy access to the smart home gear on my phone (as it's simply all authenticated through Home Assistant). Well, one night my wife and I went to bed and basically nothing in the house shut off. A few things triggered, but not many. I was already tired, it was late, and now I was frustrated that the house didn't shut off right. It turns out that Home Assistant auto updated on the server and it was a bad update that broke some integrations. Within a day or so, a fix was released and things were working again, but the automatic update completely borked the whole house without me even knowing it happened. Only update when you're ready to do actual maintenance You should always know when something is updating...and how to roll it back if it fails Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek These days, I don't auto update anything. I either have my Hermes agent handle it, or I do it by hand. Hermes is good at handling it, as it makes a backup of everything before updating so that if there is a problem, I can easily restore it. Updating containers by hand is much the same. I now know how to pin a specific version in Docker so that container doesn't update past that point if necessary, and I know how to troubleshoot a bad container if I have to. I don't have anything set to auto update though. Hermes (I call it Frodo Baggins) keeps an eye on my homelab and gives me daily updates of what's going on in it, from what containers need updates to how my hard drive health looks. So, I now have a system that automatically tells me when there are updates, but not one that automatically applies the updates without my knowledge or approval. Fool me once... Docker makes my homelab go 'round, but it can also take it down Since my entire homelab runs on Docker (outside of a few virtual machines), when something happens with Docker, it affects every area of my homelab. Since I have broken Docker several times, I now have automated backups that happen every night pushing the container configuration files off-site so if anything did go wrong, I can always restore at most a one-day-old copy of that container.