Help with the Cron Trigger node (does not execute as expected)

I have a question about the CRON Trigger node.

I defined a cron trigger to run at 4am in the morning. I setup the process to be active. N8N runs in as a docker application on a server with an external database.

I expected the CRON to run at 4 am in the morning, but it did not run, instead I had to start the workflow manually to then run. The parameters I chose were for it to run Daily and at 4 hours

see below the snipped:

    {
  "nodes": [
    {
      "parameters": {
        "triggerTimes": {
          "item": [
            {
              "hour": 4
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      "name": "4am in the morning",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.cron",
      "typeVersion": 1,
      "position": [
        380,
        430
      ]
    },
    {
      "parameters": {
        "functionCode": "const todaysDate = new Date();\nconst todaysDateFormatted = `${todaysDate.getFullYear()}-${todaysDate.getMonth()+1}-${todaysDate.getDate()}`;\n\nconst yesterdaysDate = new Date(todaysDate.setDate(todaysDate.getDate() - 1));\nconst yesterdaysDateFormatted = `${yesterdaysDate.getFullYear()}-${yesterdaysDate.getMonth()+1}-${yesterdaysDate.getDate()}`;\n\n\nitems[0].json['start'] = yesterdaysDateFormatted;\nitems[0].json['end'] = todaysDateFormatted;\nreturn items;"
      },
      "name": "Function",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.function",
      "typeVersion": 1,
      "position": [
        570,
        430
      ]
    },
    {
      "parameters": {
        "requestMethod": "POST",
        "url": "__some_url__",
        "options": {},
        "bodyParametersUi": {
          "parameter": [
            {
              "name": "start",
              "value": "={{$node[\"Function\"].data[\"start\"]}}"
            },
            {
              "name": "end",
              "value": "={{$node[\"Function\"].data[\"end\"]}}"
            }
          ]
        },
        "queryParametersUi": {
          "parameter": []
        }
      },
      "name": "HTTP Request",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "typeVersion": 1,
      "position": [
        770,
        430
      ]
    }
  ],
  "connections": {
    "4am in the morning": {
      "main": [
        [
          {
            "node": "Function",
            "type": "main",
            "index": 0
          }
        ]
      ]
    },
    "Function": {
      "main": [
        [
          {
            "node": "HTTP Request",
            "type": "main",
            "index": 0
          }
        ]
      ]
    }
  }
}

What am I not getting?

Did you set the timezone accordingly? Because by default it is set to NY time.

It can be set globally:

And also overwritten on a per workflow basis:

1 Like

Interesting. and thanks for the clarification.
Okay, I have set it to Europe/Amsterdam now explicitly. Let’s see whether it runs properly tonite. I’ll keep you updated.

Cheers