Troubleshooting

I'm on Linux and get the error "connect EACCES /var/run/docker.sock"

Since VS Code runs as a non-root user, you will need to follow the steps in "Manage Docker as a non-root user" from Post-installation steps for Linux for the extension to be able to access docker.

Docker containers and images have disappeared from Docker view

This is most likely caused by a conflict with another extension called Docker Explorer (not authored by Microsoft). To fix it, try the workaround described here.

The extension does not find Docker on a remote machine ("Failed to connect. Is Docker installed and running?" error)

1. Make sure Docker engine is installed on the remote machine and that Docker CLI works (do docker ps and ensure it does not return any errors).
2. If using a remote development environment (remote machine via SSH, WSL subsystem, GitHub Codespace), ensure that Docker extension is installed remotely in addition to being installed locally.

Invalid URL Errors

If you have a need to connect to a remote Docker daemon, we highly recommend using Docker contexts instead of a docker.environment.DOCKER_HOST setting in the VSCode extension settings. Check out this guide to learn how to create and use a context to communicate with a remote Docker daemon.

If you still need to override the Docker context you are currently using, make sure your DOCKER_HOST environment variable or docker.environment.DOCKER_HOST setting includes a protocol in the URL (e.g ssh://myuser@mymachine or tcp://1.2.3.4).

Important Note: Keep in mind that the DOCKER_HOST environment variable will override what is used by Docker contexts, and the docker.environment.DOCKER_HOST setting will override both the DOCKER_HOST environment variable and what is used by Docker contexts.

Tip: In PowerShell you can change your docker environment variable with $ENV:DOCKER_HOST = 'ssh://username@1.2.3.4'