PostgreSQL 14 standby recovery stuck in archive recovery state

Hello PostgreSQL Community,

We are facing an issue with a PostgreSQL 14 standby/replica instance where
recovery appears to be stuck and the database is not becoming available for
read connections.
Environment

-

PostgreSQL Version: 14.23
-

OS: Ubuntu 22.04
-

Architecture: x86_64
-

Deployment: Streaming replication standby
-

Data directory:

/data/pgdata_14

Issue Description

The replica started recovery after an interruption. PostgreSQL logs show:

LOG: database system was interrupted while in recovery at log time
2026-08-06 05:26:34 IST
LOG: entering standby mode
LOG: redo starts at 13B9/6D355F08

Recovery starts successfully, but the instance remains in recovery and does
not reach a consistent state where connections are accepted.

Connection attempts fail with:

FATAL: the database system is not yet accepting connections
DETAIL: Consistent recovery state has not been yet reached.

The startup process continues to replay WAL records, but progress appears
to stop.
PostgreSQL pg_controldata output

pg_control version number: 1300
Catalog version number: 202107181
Database system identifier: 7479073413122508773

Database cluster state: in archive recovery

pg_control last modified: Fri 07 Aug 2026 11:50:35 PM IST

Latest checkpoint location: 13B9/73735BC8
Latest checkpoint's REDO location: 13B9/6D355F08
Latest checkpoint's REDO WAL file: 0000000F000013B90000006D

Latest checkpoint's TimeLineID: 15
Latest checkpoint's PrevTimelineID: 15

Minimum recovery ending location: 13BA/10996458
Min recovery ending loc's timeline: 15

Backup start location: 13AC/C59613E8
Backup end location: 0/0
End-of-backup record required: yes

wal_level setting: replica
wal_log_hints setting: on

max_connections: 2000
max_worker_processes: 16
max_wal_senders: 10

Data page checksum version: 0

Additional observations

The PostgreSQL log contains many WAL redo messages similar to:

DEBUG: WAL redo at 13B9/...

The startup process is active, but recovery does not complete.

We checked storage-related issues:

-

/data filesystem is healthy from space perspective.
-

PostgreSQL data directory is on:

/dev/mapper/VG01-data_lv

-

No clear filesystem I/O errors were observed.
-

Kernel logs showed previous DISCARD/TRIM related messages:

blk_update_request: critical target error, dev sdb, sector xxxx op 0x3:(DISCARD)

but no confirmed read/write I/O failures.
Checks performed

1.

PostgreSQL process status:

ps -ef | grep postgres

Questions

1.

What could prevent PostgreSQL 14 standby recovery from reaching a
consistent recovery state when WAL replay appears active?
2.

Is there a way to identify which WAL record or relation is preventing
recovery completion?

Any guidance on further troubleshooting would be appreciated.

Regards,
Vijay R