docker compose down: Stop and Remove Containers, Networks, and Volumes

Quick Answer

# Stop and remove containers and networks
docker compose down

# Also remove volumes
docker compose down -v

# Remove everything including images
docker compose down --rmi all -v

What You’re Trying to Do

You started services with docker compose up and now want to clean up. You’re not sure whether to use docker compose stop or docker compose down, or how to also remove volumes and images.

Environment

Docker Engine 24.x or later
Docker Compose v2 (docker compose command)
OS: Ubuntu 22.04 / macOS / WSL2

Note: The same options work with legacy docker-compose (v1).

Solution

Basic Usage

docker compose down

This single command does all of the following:

Stops running containers
Removes containers
Removes networks created by Compose

Volumes and images are preserved by default.

Remove Volumes Too

docker compose down -v
# or
docker compose down --volumes

Adding -v removes the named volumes defined in your docker-compose.yml. Be careful — this deletes persistent data like database files.

Remove Images Too

# Remove all images used by the Compose project
docker compose down --rmi all

# Remove only images built locally
docker compose down --rmi local

Full Reset (Remove Everything)

docker compose down --rmi all -v

This removes containers, networks, volumes, and images in one command — a full development environment reset.

Stop and Remove a Specific Service

# Remove only the web service container
docker compose down web

Set a Custom Timeout

# Wait up to 60 seconds before forcibly stopping (default is 10)
docker compose down -t 60

docker compose stop vs docker compose down

Command	Stops containers	Removes containers	Removes networks
`docker compose stop`	✅	❌	❌
`docker compose down`	✅	✅	✅

Use stop when you want to pause and resume later (stop → start).
Use down when you want to fully clean up the environment.

Common Errors

`Error response from daemon: removal of container ... is already in progress`

Another process is already operating on that container. Wait a moment and retry.

# Force remove all containers if needed
docker rm -f $(docker ps -aq)

`network ... has active endpoints`

Another container is still connected to the network.

# Check what's using the network
docker network inspect <network_name>

# Stop all containers first, then run down again
docker compose down

`volume is in use`

The volume is attached to another container.

# Check which container is using the volume
docker ps -a --filter volume=<volume_name>

# Remove the container first, then clean up
docker compose down -v

Permission denied (socket error)

sudo docker compose down
# or add your user to the docker group
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

FAQ

Q: What is the difference between docker compose down and docker compose rm?
down stops running containers, then removes containers and networks all at once. rm only removes already-stopped containers without touching networks or doing any stopping.

Q: I forgot to use -v. Can I remove volumes later?
Yes. Run docker volume ls to find the volume name, then docker volume rm <name> to delete it. To remove all unused volumes at once, use docker volume prune.

Q: My data disappeared after running down. What happened?
If you used the -v flag, named volumes are deleted. Also, if your containers wrote data inside the container filesystem (not to a mounted volume), that data is gone when the container is removed.

Q: Does docker compose down remove images?
No, not by default. Add --rmi all to also remove the images used by your Compose project.

Q: How do I target a specific Compose file?
Use the -f flag to specify a file:

docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml down

Q: Can I remove containers without stopping them first?
docker compose down handles the stop step automatically, so running containers are safely stopped before being removed.