Fix for pg_restore "unsupported file header" Version Error

Problem

Solution for macOS

Using Homebrew

1. Update and install newer libpq:

brew update
brew install libpq
# or if already installed
brew upgrade libpq

1. Link libpq (required because it's keg-only):

brew link --force libpq

1. Add to your PATH in ~/.zshrc or ~/.bash_profile:

export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/libpq/bin:$PATH"

Solution for Ubuntu

Using APT

sudo apt update
sudo apt install libpq-dev

Verify Fix

1. Check new version after installation:

pg_restore --version

1. Try restoring your dump file again. The error should be resolved if your pg_restore version now matches or exceeds the version used to create the dump.

Notes

• This fixes version mismatch issues by updating pg_restore to a newer version

• If you still get a text format error, your dump might be in plain text format (.sql) rather than custom format (.backup). Use psql instead for text dumps

• Make sure to restart your terminal after updating PATH