Help with a n8n workflow

Questions
1

Describe the problem/error/question

I have an existing workflow that is already mostly working. Current behavior: I drop a file into Folder 1. The workflow processes that file. The processed/new file goes to Folder 2. The original file gets moved to Folder 3. The problem: Right now, this only works properly if I place one file at a time into Folder 1. If I drop 2, 3, or more files into Folder 1 at the same time, the workflow tries to process them all simultaneously, which causes the workflow to take the 2 or 3 or however mnay files and combines the results of all the files into one big file. What I want: I want to be able to drop multiple files into Folder 1 at once. The workflow must not process them all in parallel Instead, it should treat Folder 1 like a queue and process the files strictly one at a time, in sequence. Only after one file has fully completed the workflow should the next file begin processing. PLease can anybody help me with this?

What is the error message (if any)?

Please share your workflow

(Select the nodes on your canvas and use the keyboard shortcuts CMD+C/CTRL+C and CMD+V/CTRL+V to copy and paste the workflow.)

Share the output returned by the last node

Information on your n8n setup

  • n8n version: latest version

  • Database (default: SQLite):

  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main):

  • Running n8n via (Docker, easypanel, ngrok and hetzner.

  • Operating system: windows 11

    Screenshot 2026-04-22 140111
    Screenshot 2026-04-22 1401111366Ă—366 37.3 KB

2

welcome to the n8n community @Joey_While
That’s definitely doable, but it depends on how the files are coming in. If the trigger is sending everything at once in a single run, just toss a Loop Over Items node after it and set the Batch Size to 1. That way, they’re processed one by one.

If the files are triggering separate runs at the same time, you’ll need to cap the concurrency limit to 1 in the settings so they queue up properly. Also, double-check that you aren’t accidentally merging everything back together at the very end!

3

I don’t understand. how it works at the moment is i drop the files in a google drive folder

4

@Joey_While the google drive trigger fires a separate execution per file, so dropping 3 files spawns 3 runs at once and they all stomp on each other’s output. since you’re on docker just add N8N_CONCURRENCY_PRODUCTION_LIMIT=1 to your container env vars and restart — that forces n8n to queue every triggered execution and only run one at a time. your workflow itself doesn’t need to change at all.