Changes, deprecations, and removals in Neo4j 2025.x

Breaking changes in Neo4j 2025.01

The section covers breaking changes since the Neo4j 5.26 LTS release. For guidelines on how to migrate from previous Neo4j versions to 2025.01, see the Upgrade and Migration Guide.

Clustering

Discovery service

In 2025.01, discovery service v1 is removed. Therefore, transitioning from v1 to v2 must be completed before upgrading to Neo4j 2025.01.

For more details, refer to the Operations Manual → Moving from discovery service v1 to v2.

Configuration settings

  • In 2025.01, the settings server.discovery.advertised_address and server.discovery.listen_address are removed.

    To list the discovery endpoints (e.g., for providing them to the discovery resolver), use the value from the server.cluster.advertised_address setting.

  • Two configuration settings related to the discovery service v2 are renamed. You can still use them when migrating from Neo4j 5.26 to the 2025.01 version. However, it is recommended to update your neo4j.conf file to use the new settings.

    Table 1. Renamed configuration settings
    Old name New name

    dbms.cluster.discovery.v2.endpoints

    dbms.cluster.endpoints

    dbms.kubernetes.discovery.v2.service_port_name

    dbms.kubernetes.discovery.service_port_name
Ports

Port 5000 is no longer used from 2025.01 onwards. Use port 6000 for the internal traffic.

For more details, refer to the Configuration → Ports.

Logging

Starting from Neo4j 2025.01, the default debug.log format has been changed from Text to JSON. It is highly recommended to keep it enabled and not to alter it.
If you require the debug.log messages in a different format, create an additional Appender since the Neo4j Support team uses the default one. For more information, see Default logging configuration.

Built-in procedures

See procedures removed in Neo4j 2025.01 without replacement.
Name Community Edition Enterprise Edition

dbms.cluster.moveToNextDiscoveryVersion()

dbms.cluster.showParallelDiscoveryState()

dbms.cluster.switchDiscoveryServiceVersion()

dbms.setDatabaseAllocator()

Neo4j configuration settings

Removed configuration settings

See removed configuration settings in Neo4j 2025.01.
Name Comments

db.cluster.raft.leader_transfer.priority_group Enterprise Edition

Removed without replacement. Instead use db.cluster.raft.leader_transfer.priority_tag.

db.logs.query.annotation_data_as_json_enabled Dynamic

Replaced by db.logs.query.annotation_data_format.

db.tx_state.memory_allocation

Removed without replacement.

dbms.cluster.catchup.client_inactivity_timeout Enterprise Edition

Use dbms.cluster.network.client_inactivity_timeout.

dbms.cluster.discovery.log_level Enterprise Edition

Removed without replacement.

dbms.cluster.discovery.type Enterprise Edition

Removed without replacement.

dbms.cluster.discovery.endpoints Enterprise Edition

Removed without replacement.

dbms.cluster.discovery.version Enterprise Edition

Removed without replacement.

dbms.kubernetes.service_port_name Enterprise Edition

Removed without replacement.

initial.dbms.database_allocator Enterprise Edition

Removed without replacement.

server.cluster.catchup.connect_randomly_to_server_group Enterprise Edition Dynamic

Removed without replacement.
Instead use server.cluster.catchup.connect_randomly_to_server_tags

server.discovery.advertised_address Enterprise Edition

Removed without replacement.
Instead use the value of server.cluster.advertised_address.

server.discovery.listen_address Enterprise Edition

Removed without replacement.
Instead use the value of server.cluster.listen_address.

server.groups Enterprise Edition

Replaced by initial.server.tags.

server.memory.off_heap.block_cache_size

Removed without replacement.

server.memory.off_heap.max_cacheable_block_size

Removed without replacement.

server.memory.off_heap.transaction_max_size

Removed without replacement.

Changes to default values of configuration settings

These changes affect only new installations or upgrades that involve replacing existing configuration files.

See changes to default values in Neo4j 2025.01.
Name Old default value New default value

db.logs.query.annotation_data_format Dynamic

CYPHER

JSON

dbms.databases.seed_from_uri_providers Enterprise Edition

S3SeedProvider,CloudSeedProvider

CloudSeedProvider

server.metrics.csv.rotation.compression Enterprise Edition

NONE

ZIP

server.panic.shutdown_on_panic Enterprise Edition

false

true

server.logs.config

conf/server-logs.xml

server-logs.xml

server.logs.user.config

conf/user-logs.xml

user-logs.xml

Changes to valid values of configuration settings

The server.logs.config and the server.logs.user.config are changed to depend on the provided path for the conf directory instead of having the conf directory encoded in the default values.

Table 2. Updated configuration settings
Name Old valid value New valid value

server.logs.config

A path. If relative, it is resolved from server.directories.neo4j_home.

A path. If relative, it is resolved from server.directories.configuration.

server.logs.user.config

A path. If relative, it is resolved from server.directories.neo4j_home.

A path. If relative, it is resolved from server.directories.configuration.

Neo4j metrics

Removed metrics

See removed metrics in Neo4j 2025.01.
Metrics class Metrics name

Raft core metrics - replaced accordingly by the Raft metrics

<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.append_index
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.commit_index
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.applied_index
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.term
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.tx_retries
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.is_leader
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.in_flight_cache.total_bytes
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.in_flight_cache.max_bytes
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.in_flight_cache.element_count
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.in_flight_cache.max_elements
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.in_flight_cache.hits
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.in_flight_cache.misses
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.raft_log_entry_prefetch_buffer.lag
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.raft_log_entry_prefetch_buffer.bytes
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.raft_log_entry_prefetch_buffer.size
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.raft_log_entry_prefetch_buffer.async_put
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.raft_log_entry_prefetch_buffer.sync_put
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.message_processing_delay
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.message_processing_timer
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.replication_new
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.replication_attempt
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.replication_fail
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.replication_maybe
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.replication_success
<prefix>.causal_clustering.core.last_leader_message

Read Replica metrics - replaced accordingly by the Store copy metrics

<prefix>.causal_clustering.read_replica.pull_updates
<prefix>.causal_clustering.read_replica.pull_update_highest_tx_id_requested
<prefix>.causal_clustering.read_replica.pull_update_highest_tx_id_received

Discovery metrics v1 - removed without replacement. See Discovery metrics

<prefix>.cluster.discovery.replicated_data
<prefix>.cluster.discovery.cluster.members
<prefix>.cluster.discovery.cluster.unreachable
<prefix>.cluster.discovery.cluster.converged
<prefix>.cluster.discovery.restart.success_count
<prefix>.cluster.discovery.restart.failed_count

Renamed metrics

In Neo4j 2025.01, the <prefix>.store.size.total is renamed to <prefix>.store.size.full to be in line with the Prometheus naming requirements.

See the table Database store size metrics for more details.

SSL framework

The CBC-based ciphers that are no longer supported from Neo4j 2025.01

  • TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384

  • TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256

  • TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256

  • TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256

    For more details, refer to the page on SSL framework under the Security section.

SSL-related configuration setting

Starting from 2025.01, the default value of dbms.ssl.policy.*.verify_hostname is changed from false to true. See the table on the page SSL framework for more details.

Changes to Java API

See the removed public API

  • com.neo4j.configuration.EnterpriseEditionSettings.initial_database_allocator

  • com.neo4j.configuration.EnterpriseEditionSettings.server_groups

  • com.neo4j.configuration.EnterpriseEditionSettings.server_max_number_of_databases

  • com.neo4j.dbms.procedures.wait.WaitResponseState

  • com.neo4j.configuration.ClusterSettings.DEFAULT_CLUSTER_STATE_DIRECTORY_NAME

  • com.neo4j.configuration.ClusterSettings.DEFAULT_DISCOVERY_PORT

  • com.neo4j.configuration.ClusterSettings.DEFAULT_RAFT_PORT

  • com.neo4j.configuration.ClusterSettings.DEFAULT_TRANSACTION_PORT

  • com.neo4j.configuration.ClusterSettings.catchup_connect_randomly_to_server_group

  • com.neo4j.configuration.ClusterSettings.raft_leader_transfer_priority_group

  • com.neo4j.configuration.ClusterBaseSettings.DEFAULT_DISCOVERY_PORT

  • com.neo4j.configuration.ClusterNetworkSettings.catchup_client_inactivity_timeout

  • com.neo4j.causalclustering.discovery.parallel.ParallelDiscoveryMode

  • com.neo4j.causalclustering.discovery.resolve.RemotesResolver.Type

  • com.neo4j.causalclustering.discovery.resolve.RemotesResolver.init(com.neo4j.causalclustering.discovery.resolve.RemotesResolver.Type, org.neo4j.graphdb.config.Configuration, org.neo4j.logging.LogProvider)

  • com.neo4j.configuration.ClusterAddressSettings.discovery_advertised_address

  • com.neo4j.configuration.DiscoverySettings.discovery_endpoints

  • com.neo4j.configuration.DiscoverySettings.discovery_listen_address

  • com.neo4j.configuration.DiscoverySettings.discovery_log_level

  • com.neo4j.configuration.DiscoverySettings.discovery_type

  • com.neo4j.configuration.DiscoverySettings.discovery_version

  • com.neo4j.configuration.KubernetesSettings.kubernetes_service_port_name

  • com.neo4j.configuration.RaftSettings.DEFAULT_CLUSTER_STATE_DIRECTORY_NAME

  • com.neo4j.configuration.RaftSettings.DEFAULT_RAFT_PORT

  • com.neo4j.dbms.seeding.SeedDownloadStreamWrapper

  • com.neo4j.dbms.seeding.SeedProvider

  • com.neo4j.dbms.seeding.SeedProviderDependencies

  • org.neo4j.configuration.GraphDatabaseSettings.TransactionStateMemoryAllocation

  • org.neo4j.configuration.GraphDatabaseSettings.log_queries_annotation_data_as_json

  • org.neo4j.configuration.GraphDatabaseSettings.tx_state_max_off_heap_memory

  • org.neo4j.configuration.GraphDatabaseSettings.tx_state_memory_allocation

  • org.neo4j.configuration.GraphDatabaseSettings.tx_state_off_heap_block_cache_size

  • org.neo4j.configuration.GraphDatabaseSettings.tx_state_off_heap_max_cacheable_block_size

The SeedProvider is removed and replaced by the DatabaseSeedProvider. For details, refer to the Java Reference → Extending Neo4j → Setting up a plugin project.

Deprecations in Neo4j 2025.x

This section lists all the Neo4j Server features deprecated in the 2025 series, including replacements where applicable.

For deprecations in Cypher language, see Cypher manual → Deprecations, additions, and compatibility.

Procedures

See all deprecated procedures
Name Community Edition Enterprise Edition Comment

dbms.cluster.recreateDatabase()

Deprecated in 2025.04
Replaced by dbms.recreateDatabase()

dbms.quarantineDatabase() Admin Only

Deprecated in 2025.01
Removed in Cypher 25
Replaced by dbms.unquarantineDatabase()

db.index.vector.createNodeIndex()

Deprecated in 5.26
Removed in Cypher 25
Replaced by the Cypher command CREATE VECTOR INDEX. For more information, see the Cypher Manual → Create a vector index.

dbms.cluster.uncordonServer()

Deprecated in 5.23.
Removed in Cypher 25
Before Neo4j 5.23, the procedure can be run only with an admin privilege.
Replaced by ENABLE SERVER.

dbms.cluster.routing.getRoutingTable()

Deprecated in 5.21.
Replaced by: dbms.routing.getRoutingTable().

cdc.current() Beta

Deprecated in 5.17
Replaced by: db.cdc.current()

cdc.earliest() Beta

Deprecated in 5.17
Replaced by: db.cdc.earliest()

cdc.query() Beta Admin Only

Deprecated in 5.17
Replaced by: db.cdc.query()

db.create.setVectorProperty() Beta

Deprecated in 5.13
Removed in Cypher 25
Replaced by: db.create.setNodeVectorProperty()

dbms.upgrade() Admin Only

Deprecated in 5.9
Removed in Cypher 25

dbms.upgradeStatus() Admin Only

Deprecated in 5.9
Removed in Cypher 25

dbms.cluster.readReplicaToggle() Admin Only

Deprecated in 5.6
Removed in Cypher 25
Replaced by: dbms.cluster.secondaryReplicationDisable().

Configuration settings

See all deprecated configuration settings
Name Community Edition Enterprise Edition Comment

dbms.routing.load_balancing.plugin

Deprecated in 2025.05

server.db.query_cache_size

Deprecated in 5.7

dbms.security.oidc.<provider>.auth_params

Dynamic Deprecated

dbms.security.oidc.<provider>.client_id

Dynamic Deprecated

Metrics

See all deprecated metrics
Name Comment

<prefix>.cluster.raft.tx_retries Deprecated in 2025.02

The metric will be removed in a future release.

Database data metrics Deprecated in 5.15

<prefix>.ids_in_use.relationship_type

<prefix>.ids_in_use.property

<prefix>.ids_in_use.relationship

If you want to have a rough metric of how big your graph is, use <prefix>.neo4j.count.relationship instead.

<prefix>.ids_in_use.node

If you want to have a rough metric of how big your graph is, use <prefix>.neo4j.count.node instead.

Logging

Starting from 2025.05, the failureReason column of the JSON format query log is deprecated. Instead, use the errorInfo column. For details, refer to Logging → JSON format log entries for log type query.

Neo4j-admin tool

See all deprecated commands
Name Community Edition Enterprise Edition Comment

neo4-admin database aggregate-backup

Deprecated in 2025.01
Replaced by neo4j-admin backup aggregate
See all deprecated command options
Command Option Comment

neo4-admin database migrate

--page-cache Deprecated in 2025.04

The option is deprecated and replaced by the --max-off-heap-memory option.

Seed providers

S3SeedProvider is deprecated since Neo4j 5.26 and replaced by the CloudSeedProvider.

For more information, see Seed from URI.

Java API

Since Neo4j 5.26, the server-side Notification API and the getNotifications() method of the Result Core API are deprecated.

Neo4j error codes messages

Starting from 2025.04, using the error messages programmatically is deprecated. Because error messages might change in a future release, please parse or use GQLSTATUS error codes in your application code. For details, see Status Codes for Errors & Notifications → List of GQLSTATUS error codes.

Changes in Neo4j 2025.x

The section covers changes to Neo4j server functionality across different areas.

Neo4j-admin tool

Neo4j 2025.10

  • Enterprise Edition The neo4j-admin database backup command.

    The --include-metadata=none|all|users[=user1,user2]|roles option is changed. Now it allows filtering users when performing a database backup.
    Previously, if you specified users with --include-metadata, the backup file would include commands to create the users that can use the database and their role assignments. Starting from 2025.10, you can define a list of specific users (e.g., users=alice,bob,charlie), which means only those users are included in the backup. For details, refer to Back up an online database.

Neo4j 2025.01

  • Enterprise Edition The neo4j-admin database copy command.

    The functionality of the --from-pagecache=<size> option is changed.
    Instead of specifying how much cache to allocate when reading the source, now you can control the maximum amount of off-heap memory used for the copy operation, both for reading and writing. By configuring the off-heap memory value, you can impact the cache allocation as well.
    To reflect this change, a new name was added to the option: --max-off-heap-memory=<size>.

    For details, refer to the Improving the performance.

Cypher Shell

Neo4j 2025.08

A new argument disable is added to the --history option.

Neo4j 2025.06

The default value of the --error-format option is changed from legacy to gql. For details, refer to Cypher Shell.

Configuration settings

Neo4j 2025.06

The default value of the server.metrics.filter Enterprise Edition is changed.

The following metrics are removed:

  • cluster.internal.discovery.memberset.left

  • cluster.internal.discovery.crdt.gossip_id_data.size

  • cluster.internal.discovery.crdt.server_data.size

  • cluster.internal.discovery.crdt.database_data.size

  • cluster.internal.discovery.crdt.leader_data.size

  • cluster.internal.discovery.crdt.total_merge_operations

  • cluster.internal.discovery.crdt.total_update_operations

  • cluster.internal.discovery.gossip.incoming_queue_size

  • cluster.internal.discovery.gossip.total_received_data

  • cluster.internal.discovery.gossip.total_sent_data

  • cluster.internal.discovery.gossip.uncontactable_members_exist

Neo4j 2025.03

The default value of the server.metrics.filter Enterprise Edition is changed.

The included neo4j.count metrics class replaces the deprecated ids_in_use metrics.

For more information, see Monitoring → Metrics reference and the tables Database data count metrics and Database data metrics respectively.

SSL framework

Neo4j 2025.10

As of 2025.10, the Java 21 default cipher suites that use insecure CBC-based ciphers are removed from Neo4j:

  • TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384

  • TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256

  • TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256

  • TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256

    However, you still can use them by explicitly specifying their configuration and referencing them in your setup.