New pods cannot pull images but every running pod is fine, and nothing was deployed. What changed?

Running pods already have their images, so a credential expiry is invisible until something needs to start. That gap is why this always surfaces during an unrelated incident, at the worst moment.

Updated Sep 2026 · Grounded in researched DevOps, SRE and platform engineering interview loops, written to a senior-engineer editorial bar, and never padded to hit a word count.

Running pods already have their images, so a credential expiry is invisible until something needs to start. That gap is why this always surfaces during an unrelated incident, at the worst moment.

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