---
title: timescaledb_pre_restore() | Tiger Data Docs
description: Prepare the database for a restore operation
---

Since [0.9.0](https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/0.9.0)

Perform the required operations so that you can restore the database using `pg_restore`. Specifically, this sets the `timescaledb.restoring` GUC to `on` and stops any background workers which could have been performing tasks.

The background workers are stopped until the [`timescaledb_post_restore()`](/docs/reference/timescaledb/administration/timescaledb_post_restore/index.md) function is run, after the restore operation is complete.

For more information, see [Migrate using pg\_dump and pg\_restore](/docs/deploy/self-hosted/migration/entire-database/index.md).

Warning

After using `timescaledb_pre_restore()`, you need to run [`timescaledb_post_restore()`](/docs/reference/timescaledb/administration/timescaledb_post_restore/index.md) before you can use the database normally.

## Samples

Prepare to restore the database:

```
SELECT timescaledb_pre_restore();
```

## Returns

| Column  | Type    | Description                                  |
| ------- | ------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| success | BOOLEAN | TRUE if the operation completed successfully |