diff --git a/server/backend/migration/20240318000000.go b/server/backend/migration/20240318000000.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ecd52085
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/backend/migration/20240318000000.go
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+package migration
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"github.com/go-gormigrate/gormigrate/v2"
+	log "github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
+	"gorm.io/gorm"
+)
+
+type tablesLiningToFiles struct {
+	table          string
+	field          string
+	constraintName string
+	typeDefinition string
+}
+
+// migrate20240318000000
+// Enforced stricter constraints for files
+// - introduced a unique index
+// - made sure that all fields which should not be null are not null
+// - Changed the primary key of files to be bigint
+// - added previously missed foreign keys
+func migrate20240318000000() *gormigrate.Migration {
+	return &gormigrate.Migration{
+		ID: "20240318000000",
+		Migrate: func(tx *gorm.DB) error {
+			// uniqueness
+			if err := tx.Exec("alter table files add constraint url_unique unique (url)").Error; err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			// nullability
+			if err := tx.Exec("alter table files modify name text not null").Error; err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			if err := tx.Exec("alter table files modify path text not null").Error; err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			// remove FKs to files
+			tablesWithFKsToFiles := []tablesLiningToFiles{
+				{"news", "file", "news_ibfk_2", "bigint not null auto_increment"},
+				{"newsSource", "icon", "newsSource_ibfk_1", "bigint not null auto_increment"},
+				{"kino", "cover", "kino_ibfk_1", "bigint null auto_increment"},
+				{"event", "file", "fkEventFile", "bigint null auto_increment"},
+			}
+
+			for _, t := range tablesWithFKsToFiles {
+				if err := tx.Exec(fmt.Sprintf("alter table `%s` drop foreign key `%s`", t.table, t.constraintName)).Error; err != nil {
+					return err
+				}
+			}
+			// news_alert has an index instead of a FK
+			tablesWithFKsToFiles = append(tablesWithFKsToFiles, tablesLiningToFiles{"news_alert", "news_alert", "news_alert", "bigint not null auto_increment"})
+			if err := tx.Exec("alter table news_alert drop key FK_File").Error; err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			if err := migrateField(tx, "news_alert", "file", "bigint not null"); err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			// change PK
+			if err := migrateField(tx, "files", "file", "bigint not null auto_increment"); err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			// re-add FKs to files
+			for _, t := range tablesWithFKsToFiles {
+				if err := tx.Exec(fmt.Sprintf("alter table `%s` add constraint `%s` foreign key (`%s`) references files (file) on update cascade on delete cascade", t.table, t.constraintName, t.field)).Error; err != nil {
+					return err
+				}
+			}
+			return nil
+		},
+		Rollback: func(tx *gorm.DB) error {
+			log.Fatal("intentionally no rollback function as this would be lossy!")
+			return nil
+		},
+	}
+}
diff --git a/server/backend/migration/migration.go b/server/backend/migration/migration.go
index d8662d35..3afc00a7 100644
--- a/server/backend/migration/migration.go
+++ b/server/backend/migration/migration.go
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ func manualMigrate(db *gorm.DB) error {
 		migrate20240312000000(),
 		migrate20240316000000(),
 		migrate20240317000000(),
+		migrate20240318000000(),
 		migrate20240319000000(),
 	}
 	return gormigrate.New(db, gormigrateOptions, migrations).Migrate()