diff --git a/mealie/core/settings/db_providers.py b/mealie/core/settings/db_providers.py
index fff25bdcc14a..7de9a63c03e4 100644
--- a/mealie/core/settings/db_providers.py
+++ b/mealie/core/settings/db_providers.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
 from pathlib import Path
+from urllib import parse as urlparse
 
 from pydantic import BaseModel, PostgresDsn
 from pydantic_settings import BaseSettings, SettingsConfigDict
@@ -44,15 +45,28 @@ class PostgresProvider(AbstractDBProvider, BaseSettings):
     @property
     def db_url(self) -> str:
         host = f"{self.POSTGRES_SERVER}:{self.POSTGRES_PORT}"
-        return str(
-            PostgresDsn.build(
+        try:
+            url = PostgresDsn.build(
                 scheme="postgresql",
                 username=self.POSTGRES_USER,
                 password=self.POSTGRES_PASSWORD,
                 host=host,
                 path=f"{self.POSTGRES_DB or ''}",
             )
-        )
+        except ValueError as outer_error:
+            try:
+                # if the password contains special characters, it needs to be URL encoded
+                url = PostgresDsn.build(
+                    scheme="postgresql",
+                    username=self.POSTGRES_USER,
+                    password=urlparse.quote_plus(self.POSTGRES_PASSWORD),
+                    host=host,
+                    path=f"{self.POSTGRES_DB or ''}",
+                )
+            except Exception:
+                raise outer_error
+
+        return str(url)
 
     @property
     def db_url_public(self) -> str: