Unable to rename workflows in n8n Docker deployment

Other Questions N8n
1

I have deployed n8n using Docker Compose, and everything appears to function correctly. I can create, execute, and delete workflows, but I’m experiencing an unusual issue where I’m unable to change the names of my workflows.

I’ve looked through the environment variables in my configuration but haven’t found any option that seems to relate to this issue. I’m curious if there’s a permissions problem or if there’s a mistake in my setup.

Here’s my Docker Compose setup:

version: '3.1'

services:
  automation:
    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
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=mypassword
      - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://mywebsite.com
      - DB_TYPE=postgresdb
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE=n8n_db
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=database
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT=5432
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=admin
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_SCHEMA=public
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=dbpassword
    volumes:
      - automation_data:/home/node/.n8n
    depends_on:
      - database

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

volumes:
  automation_data:
  db_storage:

Does anyone have any insight into what might be leading to this problem? All other features seem to work well except for renaming workflows.

2

I hit this exact problem when I switched from SQLite to PostgreSQL in n8n. Your Docker Compose has N8N_PROTOCOL=https but you’re serving on port 8080 without SSL - this causes database transaction issues that break workflow renaming. Remove the N8N_PROTOCOL=https line or change it to N8N_PROTOCOL=http since you’re running locally. Also, your PostgreSQL connection might be timing out during writes. I had to add DB_POSTGRESDB_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT=60000 to give the database enough time for rename operations. Other stuff works because basic connections are fine, but renaming needs more complex database transactions that are failing silently.

3

Check your browser console for JavaScript errors when renaming - sometimes the frontend can’t talk to the backend properly. I’ve seen this happen when the webhook URL doesn’t match your actual domain. Try removing the WEBHOOK_URL env variable temporarily and see if renaming works on localhost:8080.

4

Had the same problem with my n8n setup. It’s a permissions issue - the n8n process can’t write to files in the data directory because of ownership conflicts. Two ways to fix it: add user: "1000:1000" under your automation service in the Docker Compose file, or run docker exec -it <container_name> chown -R node:node /home/node/.n8n to fix ownership. Also double-check that your volume mount has write permissions on the host. Fixed my workflow renaming issue without breaking anything else.