Bug Description
The frontend of my locally hosted n8n instance becomes unresponsive resulting in a 504 Gateway Timeout error. While it is unresponsive not only the frontend fails to respond, but the workflows are also on halt. I am doing my best to describe my setup here:
This is my docke-compose file:
networks:
monitoring:
name: monitoring
external: true
volumes:
n8n_data:
driver: local
postgres_data:
driver: local
services:
n8n:
image: docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest
container_name: n8n
restart: always
ports:
- 5678:5678
environment:
- EXECUTIONS_TIMEOUT=$EXECUTIONS_TIMEOUT
- N8N_HOST=$N8N_HOST
- N8N_PROTOCOL=$N8N_PROTOCOL
- WEBHOOK_URL=$WEBHOOK_URL
- DOMAIN_NAME=$DOMAIN_NAME
- SUBDOMAIN=$SUBDOMAIN
- N8N_SECURE_COOKIE=$N8N_SECURE_COOKIE
- NODE_ENV=$NODE_ENV
- GENERIC_TIMEZONE=$GENERIC_TIMEZONE
- DB_TYPE=$DB_TYPE
- DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=$DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST
- DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT=$DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT
- DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE=$POSTGRES_DB
- DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=$POSTGRES_USER
- DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=$POSTGRES_PASSWORD
networks:
- monitoring
depends_on:
postgres:
condition: service_healthy
links:
- postgres
volumes:
- n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
postgres:
image: postgres:16
container_name: n8n-postgres
restart: always
environment:
- POSTGRES_USER=$POSTGRES_USER
- POSTGRES_PASSWORD=$POSTGRES_PASSWORD
- POSTGRES_DB=$POSTGRES_DB
- POSTGRES_NON_ROOT_USER=$POSTGRES_NON_ROOT_USER
- POSTGRES_NON_ROOT_PASSWORD=$POSTGRES_NON_ROOT_PASSWORD
volumes:
- postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
- ./init-data.sh:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/init-data.sh
networks:
- monitoring
healthcheck:
test: ['CMD-SHELL', 'pg_isready -h localhost -U ${POSTGRES_USER} -d ${POSTGRES_DB}']
interval: 5s
timeout: 5s
retries: 10
I am running the docker host on a vm inside Proxmox. My flows are the following:
The logs of the n8n docker instance are the following:
node execution output incorrect data
Error: node execution output incorrect data
at WorkflowExecute.runNode (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1219:6)
at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1581:27
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:2157:11
node execution output incorrect data
Error: node execution output incorrect data
at WorkflowExecute.runNode (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1219:6)
at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1581:27
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:2157:11
node execution output incorrect data
Error: node execution output incorrect data
at WorkflowExecute.runNode (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1219:6)
at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1581:27
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:2157:11
node execution output incorrect data
Error: node execution output incorrect data
at WorkflowExecute.runNode (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1219:6)
at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1581:27
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:2157:11
There was a problem running hook "workflowExecuteAfter" Error: timeout exceeded when trying to connect
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected][email protected]/node_modules/pg-pool/index.js:45:11
at PostgresDriver.obtainMasterConnection (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/@[email protected]_@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_@aws-sdk+creden_5acd9760022463ab007747f48f178726/node_modules/src/driver/postgres/PostgresDriver.ts:1175:28)
at PostgresQueryRunner.query (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/@[email protected]_@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_@aws-sdk+creden_5acd9760022463ab007747f48f178726/node_modules/src/driver/postgres/PostgresQueryRunner.ts:248:36)
at PostgresQueryRunner.startTransaction (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/@[email protected]_@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_@aws-sdk+creden_5acd9760022463ab007747f48f178726/node_modules/src/driver/postgres/PostgresQueryRunner.ts:178:13)
at EntityManager.transaction (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/@[email protected]_@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_@aws-sdk+creden_5acd9760022463ab007747f48f178726/node_modules/src/entity-manager/EntityManager.ts:153:13)
at ExecutionRepository.updateExistingExecution (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/@n8n+db@file+packages+@n8n+db_@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_@aws-sdk_f7bd9984f5e38971ca100f511ef3ee0b/node_modules/@n8n/db/src/repositories/execution.repository.ts:428:3)
at updateExistingExecution (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/src/execution-lifecycle/shared/shared-hook-functions.ts:90:2)
at ExecutionLifecycleHooks.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/src/execution-lifecycle/execution-lifecycle-hooks.ts:364:4)
at ExecutionLifecycleHooks.runHook (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/execution-lifecycle-hooks.ts:120:4)
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:2135:6
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
There was a problem in 'Gmail Trigger Kontowecker' node in workflow 'NKMkXNGNCxmIba6D': 'undefined'
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
node execution output incorrect data
Error: node execution output incorrect data
at WorkflowExecute.runNode (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1219:6)
at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1581:27
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:2157:11
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
error Error: timeout exceeded when trying to connect
at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected][email protected]/node_modules/pg-pool/index.js:45:11
at PostgresDriver.obtainMasterConnection (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/@[email protected]_@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_@aws-sdk+creden_5acd9760022463ab007747f48f178726/node_modules/src/driver/postgres/PostgresDriver.ts:1175:28)
at PostgresQueryRunner.query (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/@[email protected]_@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_@aws-sdk+creden_5acd9760022463ab007747f48f178726/node_modules/src/driver/postgres/PostgresQueryRunner.ts:248:36)
at DataSource.query (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/@[email protected]_@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_@aws-sdk+creden_5acd9760022463ab007747f48f178726/node_modules/src/data-source/DataSource.ts:539:20)
at WorkflowStatisticsRepository.upsertWorkflowStatistics (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/@n8n+db@file+packages+@n8n+db_@[email protected][email protected][email protected]_@aws-sdk_f7bd9984f5e38971ca100f511ef3ee0b/node_modules/@n8n/db/src/repositories/workflow-statistics.repository.ts:84:26)
at WorkflowStatisticsService.workflowExecutionCompleted (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/src/services/workflow-statistics.service.ts:108:25)
at WorkflowStatisticsService.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/src/services/workflow-statistics.service.ts:83:5)
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
timeout exceeded when trying to connect
At the moment I do not have any suspicious logs inside the postgres container, but I will still post them:
PostgreSQL Database directory appears to contain a database; Skipping initialization
2025-07-27 06:55:56.401 UTC [1] LOG: starting PostgreSQL 16.9 (Debian 16.9-1.pgdg120+1) on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Debian 12.2.0-14) 12.2.0, 64-bit
2025-07-27 06:55:56.401 UTC [1] LOG: listening on IPv4 address "0.0.0.0", port 5432
2025-07-27 06:55:56.401 UTC [1] LOG: listening on IPv6 address "::", port 5432
2025-07-27 06:55:56.404 UTC [1] LOG: listening on Unix socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432"
2025-07-27 06:55:56.409 UTC [29] LOG: database system was shut down at 2025-07-27 06:55:26 UTC
2025-07-27 06:55:56.415 UTC [1] LOG: database system is ready to accept connections
2025-07-27 07:00:56.471 UTC [27] LOG: checkpoint starting: time
2025-07-27 07:05:26.052 UTC [27] LOG: checkpoint complete: wrote 5162 buffers (31.5%); 0 WAL file(s) added, 0 removed, 2 recycled; write=269.566 s, sync=0.007 s, total=269.581 s; sync files=51, longest=0.002 s, average=0.001 s; distance=42777 kB, estimate=42777 kB; lsn=0/8C329A18, redo lsn=0/8BAEEFC8
2025-07-27 07:05:56.081 UTC [27] LOG: checkpoint starting: time
2025-07-27 07:07:40.556 UTC [27] LOG: checkpoint complete: wrote 1046 buffers (6.4%); 0 WAL file(s) added, 0 removed, 1 recycled; write=104.463 s, sync=0.006 s, total=104.476 s; sync files=30, longest=0.005 s, average=0.001 s; distance=9552 kB, estimate=39454 kB; lsn=0/8C7CB530, redo lsn=0/8C443208
2025-07-27 07:10:56.656 UTC [27] LOG: checkpoint starting: time
2025-07-27 07:13:13.175 UTC [27] LOG: checkpoint complete: wrote 1117 buffers (6.8%); 0 WAL file(s) added, 0 removed, 0 recycled; write=115.964 s, sync=5.492 s, total=136.519 s; sync files=35, longest=1.267 s, average=0.157 s; distance=5914 kB, estimate=36100 kB; lsn=0/8D4A68A8, redo lsn=0/8CA09AD8
2025-07-27 07:15:56.274 UTC [27] LOG: checkpoint starting: time
It seems the unresponsiveness comes in random intervals but mostly lasts for 5-10 minutes. When n8n becomes unresponsive while the frontend is still open, I can see the following messages:
If I then reload the website I can see the following message: “Error 503, Database not ready”
I also made use of sqlite before trying to solve the underlying issue by switching to postgres. The n8n instance also became unresponsive with that setup. The error I got was different though, as it said “504 Gateway Timeout” while trying to reload the webpage in that unresponsive state. It is worth noting, that I do not have to restart any containers. The become responsive again on their own after 5-10 minutes.
Once n8n becomes responsive again I can see a few queued tasks, which I can not stop, as they just appear again with a different execution ID:
Once I restart the container, those queued tasks are gone. As you can also see in the screenshot the MQTT Trigger, which is the only one in my “Power Metrics” workflow, triggers 3 times at once very often.
I am using Adguard Home as my DNS and network wide ad blocker. Are there any known conflicts with using n8n? The Mqtt node with how often it triggers could cause an overwhelming amount of traffic on the DNS..
To Reproduce
- Use my setup
- Let it run
- Check frontend in intervals and wait for it to become unresponsive
- Check InfluxDB instance for big gaps between datapoints to verify the workflows are also unresponsive
Expected behavior
A fluently and consistently running n8n instance
##[details=“instance information”]
Debug Info
Debug info
core
- n8nVersion: 1.103.2
- platform: docker (self-hosted)
- nodeJsVersion: 22.17.0
- database: postgres
- executionMode: regular
- concurrency: -1
- license: enterprise (production)
- consumerId: c41d4637-4f82-4b69-9cc7-5b4b042f14da
storage
- success: all
- error: all
- progress: false
- manual: true
- binaryMode: memory
pruning
- enabled: true
- maxAge: 336 hours
- maxCount: 10000 executions
client
- userAgent: mozilla/5.0 (windows nt 10.0; win64; x64) applewebkit/537.36 (khtml, like gecko) chrome/138.0.0.0 safari/537.36
- isTouchDevice: false
Generated at: 2025-07-27T07:11:16.038Z
[/details]
Operating System
Ubuntu 22.04.2 live server amd64 as VM inside Proxmox
n8n Version
1.103.2
Node.js Version
22.17.0
Database
PostgreSQL
Execution mode
main (default)
Hosting
self hosted