Help with n8n community license, unable to activate after re-deploy

[Vinh_Khang_Phung]

Describe the problem/error/question

I used Render + Supabase PostgresSQL to host my n8n instance. I already activate the community license through email yesterday, it worked.

Today, I ran to the issue of Credentials could not be decrypted. The likely reason is that a different “encryptionKey” was used to encrypt the data. when trying to use Gmail hook. I solved it by adding N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY as env variable in Render, then re-deploy.

After the redeploy, I noticed that the community license is now gone, I tried to retrieve it through email and activate again but encounter Failed to activate license: license activation failed: device fingerprint mismatch

What is the error message (if any)?

Failed to activate license: license activation failed: device fingerprint mismatch

Information on your n8n setup

• n8n version: latest (?) I forked it yesterday.
• Database (default: SQLite): Postgres
• n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main):
• Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): Render
• Operating system:

Notes

• I did some research and know that the solution could be n8n license:clear. But I cannot access terminal in Render to execute this command (I’m on Free plan, so SSH also not available)
• Can you guys help me with the reset? Thank you so much.
• I also want to ask more about why does this happen? I only re-deploy it, the fingerprint of the Render server should be the same? I don’t really understand why this happened.

[ihortom]

Welcome to the community @Vinh_Khang_Phung !

Tip for sharing information

Pasting your n8n workflow

---

Ensure to copy your n8n workflow and paste it in the code block, that is in between the pairs of triple backticks, which also could be achieved by clicking </> (preformatted text) in the editor and pasting in your workflow.

```
<your workflow>
```

That implies to any JSON output you would like to share with us.

Make sure that you have removed any sensitive information from your workflow and include dummy or pinned data with it!

---

You already have 3 licenses issued and actiavted only one of them. Have you tried different license key or the same?

The fingerprint mismatch issue only comes up on instances that already have a license activated which is bound to a different instance.

The device fingerprint depends on the N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY. If not explicitly provided during deployment a random key is used. It serves both as a means to encrypt/decrypt data and to generate deviceFingerprint. It also means that if the encryption key has changed you will not be able to read the credentials saved with a different encryption key.

You can run the CLI command with Execute Command node. For example,

After running n8n license:clear make sure to restart the n8n instance before submitting the license key again.

[Vinh_Khang_Phung]

Thanks for the reply. I tried your solution, but it kinda not working out properly.

First, I used an Execute node to run n8n license:info. Which failed and lead to error per the image.

Then, I also tried to run n8n license:clear. Which also failed.

I tried use ls -a command to check the current directory, here is the output. I think there are 2 files: n8n and n8n.cmd

I did mentioned that I used a persistent DB on Supabase for n8n. Does this affect anything? I found out that in the settings table, there is a row named license.cert. Does this related to any of these problem? (I do not think so, the value of this field is ~5000 characters, there are just no way)

I hope this will give you more info and provide some additional instruction to solve this issue.

Notes: I did tried to restart my n8n instance before and after doing all this, the issue remains. My N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY environment variable still the same before I wrote the original question.

[Vinh_Khang_Phung]

Please, I need some help. I still haven’t been able to solve the problem. Can you guys remove/reset my registered machine/n8n hash/license inside your DB?