Frequent error: "Timeout waiting for lock SqliteWriteConnectionMutex to become available"

Questions
1

Describe the problem/error/question

We use n8n cloud. While working a any workflow (editing or running), we’re often seeing the UI “hang”, with the following error message popping up after ~30 seconds:

Timeout waiting for lock SqliteWriteConnectionMutex to become available.

It feels like this may be related to resource availability, which in a way may be considered normal on a cloud-based tool, but the error has become so frequent lately that it is starting to impact our workflow.

What is the error message (if any)?

Problem running workflow

Timeout waiting for lock SqliteWriteConnectionMutex to become available

In other cases, the following error message may appear instead:

Request failed with status code 502

Please share your workflow

N/A - happens with all workflows, all authors/users.

Share the output returned by the last node

N/A

Information on your n8n setup

  • n8n version: 1.121.3 on n8n cloud
  • Database (default: SQLite): N/A
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): N/A
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): n8n cloud
  • Operating system: (client) macOS
1 Like
2

Hi @TimothyVermeirenBtry, welcome!

I saw a similar error a few days ago, It was caused by importing workflows:

That issue has already been fixed,

Since you’re using an old version, I’d recommend upgrading to the latest version,

If you prefer not to upgrade, you might want to contact support, especially since you’re already using the cloud version..

3

Hello @mohamed3nan! Thank for for sharing your findings.

I think we haven’t actively imported workflows in a while, but nonetheless we’ve performed the upgrade to the most recent version. Always a good idea, I guess! For now, we haven’t noticed this issue anymore, so fingers crossed that effectively something was done to remediate this.

1 Like
4

This is still applicable, and we’re now seeing similar behavior where we can’t interact, but with 503s to the back-end instead:

CleanShot 2026-01-20 at 10.57.17
CleanShot 2026-01-20 at 10.57.171888×990 286 KB

However we are still signed in and e.g. interacting in another window works.

After a while, we might get a 502 instead of 503:

CleanShot 2026-01-20 at 10.59.45
CleanShot 2026-01-20 at 10.59.451819×446 134 KB

Supposedly the instance is being restarted? After that (it takes a while), things start working again.

5

Hi All! The n8n assistant informed me that I should reply here in case the question has not been solved yet. And it hasn’t. So…. here we are.