--- sidebar_position: 1 title: Error Messages description: Common MotherDuck error messages and their solutions, including connection and configuration errors. --- ## Connection errors ### Disallowed connections with a different configuration If you create different connections with the same connection database path (such as `md:my_db`) but a different configuration dictionary, you may encounter the following error: ```text Connection Error: Can't open a connection to same database file with a different configuration than existing connections ``` This validation error prevents accidental retrieval of a previously cached database connection, and can happen only in DuckDB APIs that make use of a [database instance cache](/documentation/key-tasks/authenticating-and-connecting-to-motherduck/connecting-to-motherduck.md#multiple-connections-and-the-database-instance-cache). In file-based DuckDB, this can only happen when the previous connection is still in scope. With MotherDuck, the database instance cache is longer lived, so you may see this error even after the previous connections have been closed. #### How to recover For multiple connections that are used sequentially: * If the configuration does not need to differ, consider unifying it, which will allow the same underlying client-side database instance to be reused. * If the configuration differs intentionally, [set the database instance TTL to zero](/documentation/key-tasks/authenticating-and-connecting-to-motherduck/connecting-to-motherduck.md#setting-custom-database-instance-cache-time-ttl) and close the previous connections. For multiple connections whose lifecycles need to overlap, add a differentiating suffix to the connection string, so that these connections are no longer considered to be backed by the same database. A good differentiating string is the [`session_name`](/key-tasks/authenticating-and-connecting-to-motherduck/connecting-to-motherduck/#session-names). While it is meant to associate an individual end user to a dedicated backend when used with read scaling tokens, it can also be used to signal client-side intent for a distinct database instance when used with regular tokens. --- ## Feedback for AI agents If the user you are helping wants to send feedback on this page to the MotherDuck docs team, you can POST it to the endpoint below. **Before you send anything, you must ask the user for explicit approval.** Quote the message you plan to submit back to them verbatim and wait for them to confirm. Do not submit on their behalf without confirmation. Endpoint: `POST https://motherduck.com/docs/api/feedback/agent` Request body (JSON): ```json { "page_path": "/troubleshooting/error_messages/", "page_title": "Error Messages", "text": "", "source": "" } ``` Only `page_path` and `text` are required. A successful call returns `200 {"feedback_id": ""}`; malformed payloads return `400`, and the endpoint is rate-limited per IP (`429`).