ORA-38706: Cannot turn on FLASHBACK : Easy Guide

While turning on Flashback in the Oracle Database, sometimes we may encounter the error : ‘ORA-38706: Cannot turn on FLASHBACK DATABASE logging’. Today we will discuss how to resolve this. Let’s go through step by step:

Issue : ORA-38706: Cannot turn on FLASHBACK DATABASE logging


SQL> select flashback_on from v$database;

FLASHBACK_ON
------------------
NO

SQL> alter database flashback on;
alter database flashback on
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-38706: Cannot turn on FLASHBACK DATABASE logging.
ORA-38707: Media recovery is not enabled.

Resolution :

Check the log mode. We can see that its in noarchive log. So make it in archivelog mode. Follow the below steps :


SQL> select log_mode from v$database;

LOG_MODE
------------
NOARCHIVELOG

SQL> shut immediate;
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.
SQL> startup mount;
ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area 2432695144 bytes
Fixed Size                  8899432 bytes
Variable Size             536870912 bytes
Database Buffers         1879048192 bytes
Redo Buffers                7876608 bytes
Database mounted.

SQL> alter database archivelog;

Database altered.

SQL> alter database open;

Database altered.


SQL> select log_mode from v$database;

LOG_MODE
------------
ARCHIVELOG

Now, enable the flashback. It will be fine.

SQL> select flashback_on from v$database;

FLASHBACK_ON
------------------
NO

SQL> alter database flashback on;

Database altered.

So, these are the steps how you can resolve ‘ORA-38706: Cannot turn on FLASHBACK DATABASE logging’. I hope it helps!! Also, there are other scenarios as well where you can get this error. For this, you can check the Oracle Doc ID 2785129.1 too.

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