Modifications to web/sites/default/settings.ddev.php lost after ddev restart

[fishfree]

How to keep the customized modifications to the file web/sites/default/settings.ddev.php in a Drupal site after running ddev restart or rebooting the OS?

[yudin-s]

settings.ddev.php is a generated file and gets regenerated by DDEV; that is why edits can disappear after restart/recreate. Put persistent Drupal overrides in settings.local.php, or later in settings.php, so they survive environment resets.

A common pattern is to include your local overrides after the DDEV file, because later values win:

if (file_exists(__DIR__ . '/settings.ddev.php') && getenv('IS_DDEV_PROJECT') == 'true') {
  include __DIR__ . '/settings.ddev.php';
}

$local_settings = __DIR__ . '/settings.local.php';
if (file_exists($local_settings)) {
  include $local_settings;
}

Then put your custom settings in settings.local.php.

If you really want to own settings.ddev.php itself, remove the #ddev-generated marker from that file and keep it under your control. The larger switch is ddev config --disable-settings-management, but use that only if you intentionally want to stop DDEV from maintaining Drupal's generated settings for the project.

If this matches your setup, please mark it answered so people can find the DDEV settings-management placement rule quickly.

[rfay]

You'll want to read the docs on settings files:

• https://docs.ddev.com/en/stable/users/usage/cms-settings/#managing-cms-settings

Especially

• https://docs.ddev.com/en/stable/users/usage/cms-settings/#controlling-or-removing-cms-settings