Starting with Docker v29, Docker has introduced a breaking change by updating the Docker Daemon API version to 1.44. Earlier releases of Traefik – especially those running on Windows LTSC 2019 (1809) base images – are not compatible with this API version. As a result, Traefik is unable to communicate correctly with the Docker engine.
This issue occurs because older Traefik binaries are built against earlier Docker Daemon API versions (1.24–1.43) and therefore fail when the Docker environment only exposes API v1.44 or later.
As a result, Traefik might fail to start or detect Docker containers. Error messages similar to the following might be returned:
2025-11-10T23:03:43Z ERR Failed to retrieve information of the docker client and server host error="Error response from daemon: client version 1.24 is too old. Minimum supported API version is 1.44, please upgrade your client to a newer version" providerName=docker
2025-11-10T23:03:43Z ERR Provider error, retrying in 2.356192979s error="Error response from daemon: client version 1.24 is too old. Minimum supported API version is 1.44, please upgrade your client to a newer version" providerName=docker
2025-12-10T13:34:19+02:00 ERR Failed to retrieve information of the docker client and server host error="Error response from daemon: " providerName=docker
2025-12-10T13:34:19+02:00 ERR Provider error, retrying in 8.549077027s error="Error response from daemon: " providerName=docker
These failures prevent Traefik from reading Docker container labels and therefore block routing configuration.
For full compatibility with Docker v29 and later, it is strongly recommended that you use the Windows LTSC 2022 base image and upgrade Traefik to version 3.6.1 or later.
Those versions include compatibility fixes aligned with Docker API changes, ensuring correct and stable behavior with Docker v29 and later.
Temporary approach (not guaranteed)
Alternatively, if you are obliged to continue using the Windows LTSC 2019 (1809) base image, you can attempt to force Docker to allow older API negotiation by setting:
DOCKER_MIN_API_VERSION=1.24
Important notes: