# Debugging deadlocks in Postgres

DevFeed: [Debugging deadlocks in Postgres](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/debugging-deadlocks-in-postgres-11751.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://incident.io/blog/debugging-deadlocks-in-postgres>)

Author: Louis Heath

Published: 2025-02-04T21:37:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [The incident.io Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/the-incident-io-blog.md>)

Topics: [Deadlock](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/deadlock.md>), [debugging](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/debugging.md>), [Concurrency](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/concurrency.md>), [backend-development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/backend-development.md>), [Transactions](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/transactions.md>), [Database](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/database.md>)

Tags: [backend-development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/backend-development.md>), [concurrent](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/concurrent.md>), [database](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/database.md>), [deadlock](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/deadlock.md>), [debugging](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/debugging.md>), [incident](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/incident.md>), [incident-channel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/incident-channel.md>), [incident-management](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/incident-management.md>), [incident-response](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/incident-response.md>), [locks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/locks.md>), [outage](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/outage.md>), [post-mortem](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/post-mortem.md>), [slack-incident](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/slack-incident.md>), [sync](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/sync.md>), [transactions](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/transactions.md>)

## AI overview

This article explains how deadlocks arise in Postgres when concurrent processes hold locks that each other needs. It recommends redesigning transactions to acquire locks in a consistent order and discusses alternative approaches that reduce parallelism and may increase lock timeouts.

## Source excerpt

Deadlocks are a natural hurdle in backend development, but with a bit of digging and careful design they can be identified and resolved.