How to fix the Oracle error ORA-16438: Switchover to primary cannot be executed at this time?

In this post, you’ll learn more about the Oracle ErrorORA-16438: Switchover to primary cannot be executed at this time with the details on why you receive this error and the possible solution to fix it.

Oracle Error Description

ORA-16438: Switchover to primary cannot be executed at this time

Reason for the Error ORA-16438: Switchover to primary cannot be executed at this time

ALTER DATABASE COMMIT TO SWITCHOVER TO PRIMARY could not be executed because an incompatible operation such as RMAN restore or flashback was in progress. See the database alert log for details.

How to fix the Error ORA-16438: Switchover to primary cannot be executed at this time ?

You can fix this error in Oracle by following the below steps

Wait for the incompatible operation to complete. The files that have been flashed back or restored need recovery before you can reissue ALTER DATABASE COMMIT TO SWITCHOVER TO PRIMARY statement. Start redo apply and verify that the SWITCHOVER_STATUS column of the V$DATABASE view reports TO_PRIMARY or SESSIONS_ACTIVE before retrying ALTER DATABASE COMMIT TO SWITCHOVER TO PRIMARY.