How to fix BUSYKEY Target key name already exists in Redis

Use the EXISTS command to verify whether the key is already in Redis:

EXISTS mykey

If it returns 1, the key exists. If it returns 0, the key does not exist.

To understand what data is stored in the conflicting key:

TYPE mykey
TTL mykey
GET mykey

Use GET for strings, HGETALL for hashes, LRANGE for lists, etc., based on the TYPE output. Check TTL to see if the key will expire naturally.

If you no longer need the data in the existing key, delete it before restoring:

DEL mykey

Then proceed with your RESTORE command:

RESTORE mykey 0 "<serialized-value>"

The recommended solution is to use the REPLACE option (available in Redis 3.0+) to allow RESTORE to overwrite the existing key:

RESTORE mykey 0 "<serialized-value>" REPLACE

This safely overwrites the target key without additional cleanup steps.

When importing data into a Redis cluster and encountering BUSYKEY errors, use the --cluster-replace flag:

redis-cli --cluster import 127.0.0.1:6379 --cluster-from 127.0.0.1:6380 --cluster-replace

This allows existing keys to be overwritten during the import process.

If BUSYKEY errors occur frequently in your application:

1. Check if multiple processes are writing to the same keys
2. Use RENAMENX instead of RENAME to avoid overwriting keys unintentionally
3. Add existence checks before RESTORE operations
4. Implement proper key naming schemes to avoid collisions
5. Use Lua scripts with atomic operations to ensure key safety