"Your Portainer instance has timed out for security purposes" error fix

You may encounter the following message in your Portainer logs after installation:

the Portainer instance timed out for security purposes, to re-enable your Portainer instance, you will need to restart Portainer

Cause

When you first install Portainer, if you do not log in and complete the initial setup within 5 minutes the Portainer service within the container stops. This is a security measure to prevent a malicious user taking over a fresh Portainer installation and configuring it themselves. To avoid this happening, we suggest completing the initial setup within 5 minutes of starting the Portainer container for the first time.

Resolution

If you are receiving the above error message, you can resolve this by stopping and restarting the Portainer container. This will give you another 5 minutes to complete the initial setup. On Docker Standalone for example, you can do this by running:

docker stop portainer
docker start portainer

In some cases you may also need to remove the Portainer container with docker rm portainer then start it again with the docker run command from the installation instructions.

If you are receiving this message on a previously working Portainer installation, check to ensure your portainer_data volume is correctly mounted to the Portainer container and that it contains your Portainer configuration files. If your portainer_data volume is not mounted correctly or the configuration files are missing, Portainer assumes you are performing a fresh installation and will act accordingly.