RESTORE Is Terminating Abnormally (Errors 3013 and 3241)

3013 is one of the most searched SQL Server errors and one of the least informative. It says the restore stopped. It never says why. Everything useful is in the message printed just before it, and plenty of tools, job histories and application logs show only the last line.

To pin down what actually appears above it, I broke a restore five different ways in a throwaway container and captured the real output each time. Five different causes, five different errors, and 3013 was identical in every one.

Five Causes, One Closing Line

Only two of those five are a problem with the backup file. The other three are a problem with where you are restoring it to, or what you are connected to, and those are free to fix. Treating every 3013 as “the backup is corrupt” sends you looking for a new backup when the one you have is fine.

Msg 3241, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
The media family on device '/var/opt/mssql/data/garbage.bak' is incorrectly formed.
SQL Server cannot process this media family.
Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

Msg 3287, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
The file ID 1 on device '/var/opt/mssql/data/truncated.bak' is incorrectly formed
and can not be read.
Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

Msg 3634, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
The operating system returned the error '5(Access is denied.)' while attempting
'RestoreContainer::ValidateTargetForCreation' on '/no/such/dir/x.mdf'.
Msg 3156, Level 16, State 5, Line 1
File 'RestoreDemo' cannot be restored to '/no/such/dir/x.mdf'.
Use WITH MOVE to identify a valid location for the file.
...
Problems were identified while planning for the RESTORE statement.
Previous messages provide details.
Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

Msg 3102, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
RESTORE cannot process database 'RestoreDemo' because it is in use by this session.
It is recommended that the master database be used when performing this operation.
Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

Msg 3154, Level 16, State 4, Line 1
The backup set holds a backup of a database other than the existing 'Other' database.
Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

Ask the Backup File Directly

Before restoring anything, two read-only statements tell you whether the file is the problem. Neither writes anything and neither needs the target database.

-- What is actually in this file? Database name, size, LSNs, version it came from.
RESTORE HEADERONLY FROM DISK = 'D:\Backups\sales.bak';

-- The logical file names, which is what WITH MOVE needs.
RESTORE FILELISTONLY FROM DISK = 'D:\Backups\sales.bak';

-- Read the whole backup and check it, without restoring it.
RESTORE VERIFYONLY FROM DISK = 'D:\Backups\sales.bak';

This splits the diagnosis in one step. Run HEADERONLY against the file that failed:

• It fails too, and the problem is the file. Confirmed in testing: HEADERONLY against the unreadable file returned the same 3241, followed by RESTORE HEADERONLY is terminating abnormally.
• It succeeds, and the file is fine. Your problem is the target, the paths, or the session, which is three of the five cases above.

Note that 3013’s text follows the statement you ran. It says RESTORE HEADERONLY is terminating abnormally there rather than RESTORE DATABASE, which is a small confirmation that it is a closing line rather than a diagnosis.

And to close the loop: the same backup that produced four of those five failures restored cleanly the moment it was pointed at a valid target from a session on master.

Processed 344 pages for database 'Restored', file 'RestoreDemo' on file 1.
Processed 2 pages for database 'Restored', file 'RestoreDemo_log' on file 1.
RESTORE DATABASE successfully processed 346 pages in 0.066 seconds (40.897 MB/sec).

Getting the Full Message Text

If all you have is 3013, the useful line was thrown away before it reached you. Where to find it:

• SQL Agent job history truncates. Open the step’s output file if it has one, or set one, rather than reading the summary.
• The SQL Server error log has the real error even when the client only showed the last line. Restore failures are written there with their causes.
• Applications and ORMs often surface only the final message. Rerun the restore by hand in SSMS or sqlcmd and read the whole output.
• In PowerShell, capture the verbose stream, because Invoke-Sqlcmd puts informational and error detail there rather than in the return value.

What Not To Do

Common Questions

Related Scripts

• The Backup Set Holds a Backup of a Database Other Than the Existing One (3154), case 5 in full
• Cannot Open Backup Device, when the restore cannot even reach the file
• Backup & Recovery scripts, coverage and restore readiness before you need them
• SQL Server Errors: The Complete Guide, the index for the whole error series