Heroku doesn't recognize DATABASE_URL

Question

I've deployed my site to heroku and now I'm trying to push my local database up but keep getting this error:

▸ Unknown database:

▸ my_database_url

▸ Valid options are: DATABASE_URL

After using the command:

heroku pg:push postgres://user@localhost:5432/app_name
heroku_database_url --app heroku_app_name

But the DATABASE_URL I'm using is the one that I've gotten from heroku with

heroku config:get DATABASE_URL

and using the returned value. I tried reseting the DATABASE_URL but I still get the same error. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

I'm having a similar issue; when I GET request to the postgres database it returns an ssl error. The weird part is that when I console.log the DATABASE_URL it's undefined. Any ideas? — cDub

Emily Grace Acres Emily Grace Acres · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-23T20:18:55

Solved: Needed to use the literal word "DATABASE_URL" instead of the string returned from Heroku when asked for the DATABASE_URL