Why am I getting pg_restore: [archiver] unsupported version (1.13) in file header error with pg_restore?

Issue

I get an error pg_restore: [archiver] unsupported version (1.13) in file header when I try to restore a dump file that was created using Heroku PGBackups (heroku pg:backups:capture or scheduled backups) feature or using pg_dump with one-off dynos.

Resolution

You're using an old version of pg_restore binary that doesn't support restoring the provided dump file. Please make sure that you use the latest Postgres version, which must be higher than the following release: https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/1834/ (10.3, 9.6.8, 9.5.12, 9.4.17, and 9.3.22).

You can check the pg_restore version you're using by running pg_restore --version.

If you are using a third-party tool, such as PgAdmin, to restore the provided dump file, the restore may not succeed even with the installed Postgres version being up to date. This is due to third-party tools often bundling their own versions of the pg_restore binary, that may not be up to date.

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