Cannot rename workflows in dockerized n8n setup

Other Questions N8n
1

I have n8n running in Docker containers but I’m facing a weird issue. Everything works fine - I can create new workflows, run them, and delete them without problems. However, when I try to rename a workflow, nothing happens. The interface doesn’t seem to respond to name changes.

version: '3.1'

services:
  automation_service:
    image: n8nio/n8n:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:5678"
    environment:
      - N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY=myencryptionkey123
      - N8N_SECURE_COOKIE=false
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=admin_user
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=secretpass
      - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://mysite.com
      - DB_TYPE=postgresdb
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE=n8n_db
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=database
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT=5432
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=db_admin
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_SCHEMA=public
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=dbpass123
    volumes:
      - app_storage:/home/node/.n8n
    depends_on:
      - database

  database:
    image: postgres:16.2
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_DB=n8n_db
      - POSTGRES_USER=db_admin
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=dbpass123
    volumes:
      - db_storage:/var/lib/postgresql/data

volumes:
  app_storage:
  db_storage:

I checked the environment variables but couldn’t find anything related to workflow naming permissions. Is there a specific setting I’m missing or could this be a permission issue with the Docker setup?

2

sounds like a browser cache issue. try a hard refresh (ctrl+f5) or clear your cache. i had the same prob with n8n’s interface and that fixed it. also check the console for js errors when ur renaming.

3

Had this exact problem last month. It’s your N8N_PROTOCOL setting - you’ve got it set to https but the container’s running HTTP internally. This mismatch breaks interface stuff like renaming. Just remove the N8N_PROTOCOL variable completely or change it to http since you’re hitting it locally on 8080. Make sure your WEBHOOK_URL matches the protocol too. Restart the containers and renaming should work fine. Took me hours to figure this out - the protocol mismatch was the whole issue.

4

Check your database connection and schema permissions. I had the same issue - workflow metadata wasn’t saving because my PostgreSQL user didn’t have the right privileges. You’ve got DB_POSTGRESDB_SCHEMA set to public, but your n8n user might not have write access to update workflow names there. Connect directly to your postgres container and make sure db_admin can UPDATE the workflows table. Also, postgres:16.2 had some weird compatibility issues with certain n8n versions. Add N8N_LOG_LEVEL=debug to catch any database errors during renames that don’t show up in the UI.