how do i recover it? The worst part is: i had backed up my workflows and had manually saved data tables. But when i try to run them in this new version, data tables config (which are opened by double clicking data tables in the workflow) are broken. I dont know the config of the data tables as i thought i wouldn’t need to redo them.
What should i do? I am super stressed as i spent a month to build this massive workflow. Thanks.
Information on your n8n setup
n8n version: old version: 1.121.3 , new version: 2.2.5
This is unfortunate, however having some backups is a really good start.
As a first priority, are you able to restore your instance back to the version 1.121 backup you have? I am not sure how you backed this up, but wether a full serve snapshot or if you copied the data directories of your n8n instance as well as database
i exported workflows with docker exec -u node -it <name> n8n export:workflow ....
i screenshotted and saved data tables.
after the update and not seeing any workflows or credentials or data tables: i manually imported workflows. I manually created data tables but the data table configs are broken as n8n can’t find the data table id of old data tables (even tho data tables of same names are manually created).
also, in my past n8n version: container path was in /home/node/n8n instead of /home/node/.n8n. (the container path of .n8n is what i am using in the latest version of n8n)
do i delete the latest version container and remake old one? i am confused as to whether i should use container path as /home/node/n8n or /home/node/.n8n? coz i had used home/node/n8n before but now that directory doesn’t exist.
Yes no this might not work as the export you did is only the workflow structures and not all references to the db for sub workflows, credentials, data tables etc etc.
Do you have a server backup from which you can restore everything. The key is to have kept the database intact
since i deleted the old version docker container, i have no way to recover the old database.sqlite right?
inside container path: /home/node/.n8n there is a database.sqlite containing current workflows that i manually uploaded. but there is no another database.sqlite.
in the future i should backup database.sqlite right?
I’m sorry.. I’ve been there. Yeah the best thing to do for your data tables is to
Run a daily or every so often export that will export your data stable data in csv so that when the time comes to restore it’s easy. I do this every couple hours with another workflow.
then for backing up your workflow with a more reliable method you can check this link
But yeah it looks like since you’ve exported in the way you have, it’s going to be a manual process but moving forward make sure you have all these systems in place before updating
This has been solved. Saving database.sqlite and other 2 database.sqlite files from host path and saving the encryption key for credentials is the correct way to backup everything.
I was having issue with config of data tables inside the workflows. This was solved by pressing the “expand” button on every form inside the configs of data tables. This “expand” button showed what the past entry was.