Cannot pull Docker image

Questions
1

Bug Description

I wanted to run n8n locally via podman. As podman is docker compatible, I ran the exact commands that the docs told me to, but with podman. But it is taking forever to pull.

To Reproduce

  • Go to the docs
  • Follow the commnads replacing docker with podman:
    • create a volume: podman volume create n8n_data
    • run the official container (replaced with my relevant timezone):
podman run -it --rm \
 --name n8n \
 -p 5678:5678 \
 -e GENERIC_TIMEZONE="UTC+6" \
 -e TZ="UTC+6" \
 -e N8N_ENFORCE_SETTINGS_FILE_PERMISSIONS=true \
 -e N8N_RUNNERS_ENABLED=true \
 -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n \
 docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n

Expected behavior

runs the container successfully

Debug Info

Output of podman run ...:

Trying to pull docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest...
WARN[0037] Failed, retrying in 1s ... (1/3). Error: initializing source docker://docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest: reading manifest latest in docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n: toomanyrequests: You have reached your unauthenticated pull rate limit. https://www.docker.com/increase-rate-limit 
WARN[0076] Failed, retrying in 1s ... (2/3). Error: initializing source docker://docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest: reading manifest latest in docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n: toomanyrequests: You have reached your unauthenticated pull rate limit. https://www.docker.com/increase-rate-limit 
WARN[0114] Failed, retrying in 1s ... (3/3). Error: initializing source docker://docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest: reading manifest latest in docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n: toomanyrequests: You have reached your unauthenticated pull rate limit. https://www.docker.com/increase-rate-limit

Operating System

Manjaro

n8n Version

2.25.7

Node.js Version

v25.8.2

Database

SQLite (default)

Execution mode

main (default)

Hosting

self hosted

2

Hi @Mr-M1M3, welcome!
I think you need to reauthenticate your Podman, try this:
podman login docker.io
And wait for some time before making another pull request. Let me know how this goes.

3

Hi @Mr-M1M3

Another alternative is to use the official Docker hub image path. Replace docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n with docker.io/n8nio/n8n

podman run -it --rm \
 --name n8n \
 -p 5678:5678 \
 -e GENERIC_TIMEZONE="UTC+6" \
 -e TZ="UTC+6" \
 -e N8N_ENFORCE_SETTINGS_FILE_PERMISSIONS=true \
 -e N8N_RUNNERS_ENABLED=true \
 -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n \
 docker.io/n8nio/n8n
4

hii @Mr-M1M3
this error doesn’t look like n8n or podman issue. the error show you’re hitting docker unauthentication pull rate limit.
tomanyrequest: you have reached your unauthentication pull rate limit
this image isn’t download so thecontainercan’t start. try logging in with podmanloging or wait for the rate limit to reset and then pull agaain

:[quote=“Mr-M1M3, post:1, topic:299164, full:true”]

Bug Description

I wanted to run n8n locally via podman. As podman is docker compatible, I ran the exact commands that the docs told me to, but with podman. But it is taking forever to pull.

To Reproduce

  • Go to the docs
  • Follow the commnads replacing docker with podman:
    • create a volume: podman volume create n8n_data
    • run the official container (replaced with my relevant timezone):
podman run -it --rm \
 --name n8n \
 -p 5678:5678 \
 -e GENERIC_TIMEZONE="UTC+6" \
 -e TZ="UTC+6" \
 -e N8N_ENFORCE_SETTINGS_FILE_PERMISSIONS=true \
 -e N8N_RUNNERS_ENABLED=true \
 -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n \
 docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n

Expected behavior

runs the container successfully

Debug Info

Output of podman run ...:

Trying to pull docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest...
WARN[0037] Failed, retrying in 1s ... (1/3). Error: initializing source docker://docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest: reading manifest latest in docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n: toomanyrequests: You have reached your unauthenticated pull rate limit. https://www.docker.com/increase-rate-limit 
WARN[0076] Failed, retrying in 1s ... (2/3). Error: initializing source docker://docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest: reading manifest latest in docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n: toomanyrequests: You have reached your unauthenticated pull rate limit. https://www.docker.com/increase-rate-limit 
WARN[0114] Failed, retrying in 1s ... (3/3). Error: initializing source docker://docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest: reading manifest latest in docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n: toomanyrequests: You have reached your unauthenticated pull rate limit. https://www.docker.com/increase-rate-limit

Operating System

Manjaro

n8n Version

2.25.7

Node.js Version

v25.8.2

Database

SQLite (default)

Execution mode

main (default)

Hosting

self hosted
[/quote]

5

One correction on the docker.io/n8nio/n8n suggestion, that’s still Docker Hub under the hood, so it’ll likely hit the same toomanyrequests wall, just from a different pull path.

docker.n8n.io is actually n8n’s own registry mirror, set up specifically so self-hosters don’t hit Docker Hub’s anonymous pull limits.

6

This one worked for me:
n8nio/n8n:latest