# Losing recent data when restarting Prometheus service

**URL:** <https://discuss.prometheus.io/t/losing-recent-data-when-restarting-prometheus-service/3508>\
**Category:** General Help/Support\
**Created:** [March 1, 2026, 3:50pm UTC](https://discuss.prometheus.io/t/losing-recent-data-when-restarting-prometheus-service/3508 "2026-03-01T15:50:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![garry0garry](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/discuss.prometheus.io/garry0garry/32/1250_2.png) [@garry0garry](https://discuss.prometheus.io/u/garry0garry)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 8:04pm UTC](https://discuss.prometheus.io/t/losing-recent-data-when-restarting-prometheus-service/3508/2 "2026-03-01T20:04:33Z")

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I think I’ve found the cause of the problem.  
The command `sudo ls -lh /var/lib/prometheus/metrics2/wal/` showed two directories:  
`checkpoint.00001219` - current  
`checkpoint.00016128` - old.  
After deleting `checkpoint.00016128`, the service restarted correctly.

WAL does not check for additional checkpoints, which prevents it from working correctly when the service is restarted.

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_[View the full topic](https://discuss.prometheus.io/t/losing-recent-data-when-restarting-prometheus-service/3508)._