How to fix Liquibase: Checksum validation failed in PostgreSQL

Check the Liquibase error message to identify which changeset has the checksum mismatch. The error output will show:

Checksum validation failed: changeset-id
Expected: 1:abc123def456
Actual: 1:xyz789uvw012

Note both the changeset ID and the two different checksum values.

Check your version control system to see if the changeset was intentionally modified:

git log -p path/to/changelog.xml | grep -A 10 -B 10 "changeset-id"

If the modification is intentional and safe (like fixing a bug), proceed with accepting the new checksum. If it was accidental, revert the change.

Add a <validCheckSum> tag to accept the old checksum as valid. This tells Liquibase that both the old and new checksums are acceptable:

<changeSet id="my-changeset" author="dev">
  <validCheckSum>1:abc123def456</validCheckSum>
  <!-- your SQL here -->
</changeSet>

Alternatively, use the special value "1:any" to accept any checksum (use with caution):

<validCheckSum>1:any</validCheckSum>

This is useful when you've already applied the changeset to production and need to accommodate the checksum difference on other environments.

If the changeset should be re-executed with the new content, add the runOnChange="true" attribute:

<changeSet id="my-changeset" author="dev" runOnChange="true">
  <!-- your modified SQL here -->
</changeSet>

This tells Liquibase to recalculate the checksum on every deployment and re-run the changeset if content changed. Use this when the modification is intentional and should be applied to all environments.

If the issue occurred after upgrading Liquibase versions, clear the old checksums and let Liquibase recalculate them:

# Using the old Liquibase version first (recommended)
liquibase clear-checksums

# Then upgrade and run normally
liquibase update

This is the safest approach when Liquibase algorithm improvements change checksum calculation. Always use the OLD version to clear before upgrading.

If other options aren't viable, you can manually update the stored checksum in the database:

UPDATE databasechangelog
SET md5sum = '1:xyz789uvw012'
WHERE id = 'my-changeset' AND author = 'dev';

Use the NEW checksum value from the error message. Only do this if you're confident the modification is safe and consistent across all environments.