Today i spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out how come suddenly my java application cannot connect to postgresql database. It gives error “FATAL: database databasename does not exist”, and the weird thing is that i can browse and query to my postgresql database from PGAdmin and other database browser.

Here is my application’s complete error stacktrace

Caused by: org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: FATAL: database "geoportal" does not exist
    at org.postgresql.core.v3.ConnectionFactoryImpl.readStartupMessages(ConnectionFactoryImpl.java:684)
    at org.postgresql.core.v3.ConnectionFactoryImpl.openConnectionImpl(ConnectionFactoryImpl.java:199)
    at org.postgresql.core.ConnectionFactory.openConnection(ConnectionFactory.java:66)
    at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Connection.<init>(AbstractJdbc2Connection.java:127)
    at org.postgresql.jdbc3.AbstractJdbc3Connection.<init>(AbstractJdbc3Connection.java:29)
    at org.postgresql.jdbc3g.AbstractJdbc3gConnection.<init>(AbstractJdbc3gConnection.java:21)
    at org.postgresql.jdbc4.AbstractJdbc4Connection.<init>(AbstractJdbc4Connection.java:41)
    at org.postgresql.jdbc4.Jdbc4Connection.<init>(Jdbc4Connection.java:24)
    at org.postgresql.Driver.makeConnection(Driver.java:414)
    at org.postgresql.Driver.connect(Driver.java:282)

Weird because i can see my db both from PGAdmin and psql console,

When suddenly i realize when im checking my postgresql port, and i can see 2 different postgresql with different PID occupied the same port, 5432. Somehow my PGAdmin and psql connect to the right instance while my application connect to the wrong instance.

After killing my unwanted postgresql PID from taskmanager, suddenly my java application can run well again.