I used to be able to copy nodes from one workflow and paste them into another workflow by right-clicking on the canvas and selecting “Paste”. However, this functionality suddenly stopped working.
When I copy nodes from Workflow A (Ctrl+C), I see the “Copied to clipboard” toast notification. But when I switch to Workflow B and right-click on the canvas, the “Paste” option is completely missing from the context menu. Ctrl+V also does nothing.
This was working fine before, and I rely heavily on this feature to reuse nodes across workflows.
What is the error message (if any)?
No error message. The UI shows “Copied to clipboard” on copy, but paste simply doesn’t work - neither via right-click menu (missing Paste option) nor keyboard shortcut.
What I’ve tried
Refreshed the browser page
Cleared browser cache
Tried different browsers (Chrome, Edge)
Tried Ctrl+V instead of right-click menu
Verified the nodes are actually selected before copying
Copy-paste between workflows broken in 2.12.3 (Docker) - HTTP internal IP access causing CORS/clipboard issues After upgrading to n8n 2.12.3 (Docker), I can no longer copy nodes from one workflow and paste them into another. The “Paste” option is missing from the right-click context menu, and Ctrl+V does nothing.
Browser console errors:
Access to XMLHttpRequest at 'https://abc.abc.com/rest/telemetry/proxy/v1/track'
from origin 'http://192.168.1.50:5678'
has been blocked by CORS policy: No 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header
My environment:
n8n version: 2.12.3
Deployment: Docker (self-hosted)
Access URL:http://192.168.1.50:5678 (internal IP, no HTTPS, no domain)
Database: (PostgreSQL)
Browser: Edge
What I suspect:
The clipboard functionality appears to be restricted when accessing n8n via HTTP + IP address instead of HTTPS + domain. The CORS errors suggest the browser is blocking clipboard operations due to security policies.
What I’ve tried:
• Refreshed browser, cleared cache
• Tested Chrome and Edge
• Tried Ctrl+V instead of right-click menu
• Verified nodes are selected before copying
Questions:
Is this a known limitation in 2.12.3 for HTTP/IP deployments?
Are there any workarounds without setting up HTTPS/domain?
Can I disable telemetry to reduce CORS errors (N8N_DIAGNOSTICS_ENABLED=false)?
Is there a Docker env variable to enable “insecure” clipboard mode for internal use?
your hunch is right — browsers require a “secure context” for the Clipboard API, meaning HTTPS or localhost. accessing n8n via http://192.168.1.50:5678 fails that check, so the browser blocks clipboard access entirely and n8n hides the paste option since it can’t work anyway.
N8N_DIAGNOSTICS_ENABLED=false will suppress the CORS noise from telemetry but won’t restore clipboard — those are two separate issues.
quickest workarounds without a full domain setup:
run nginx locally as a reverse proxy with a self-signed cert to get HTTPS
use a cloudflare tunnel (free tier) — easy to set up and gives you a real HTTPS endpoint
if you’re accessing n8n from the same machine it’s running on, switch to localhost:5678 — localhost counts as a secure context
this isn’t a 2.12.3 regression specifically, browser vendors have been tightening Clipboard API restrictions for years. older browser versions were more permissive about it.
Yeah since youre accessing n8n over plain HTTP on a local IP the browser just blocks clipboard access entirely, it needs HTTPS to work. Easiest fix is the chrome flag chrome://flags/#unsafely-treat-insecure-origin-as-secure and add your n8n URL there.
exactly — that chrome flag #unsafely-treat-insecure-origin-as-secure is the quickest workaround for local testing if you want to avoid the whole https setup. just be aware it’s only safe to use for internal development, obviously not for production. good to have options depending on your setup.