# N8n crashes when using Extract text from a PDF file

**URL:** <https://community.n8n.io/t/n8n-crashes-when-using-extract-text-from-a-pdf-file/199832>\
**Category:** Questions\
**Created:** [October 5, 2025, 1:00pm UTC](https://community.n8n.io/t/n8n-crashes-when-using-extract-text-from-a-pdf-file/199832 "2025-10-05T13:00:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![shlomi](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/n8n/user_avatar/community.n8n.io/shlomi/32/21454_2.png) [@shlomi](https://community.n8n.io/u/shlomi)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 1:00pm UTC](https://community.n8n.io/t/n8n-crashes-when-using-extract-text-from-a-pdf-file/199832/1 "2025-10-05T13:00:48Z")

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## Describe the problem/error/question

Hi, the problem started after one of the recent updates.  
n8n just crashes when I use node to extract text from a PDF file.

## What is the error message (if any)?

n8n jsut crashes - dont see any error

## Please share your workflow

## Information on your n8n setup

- **n8n version:** 1.113.3
- **Database (default: SQLite): pg**
- **n8n EXECUTIONS\_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): main**
- **Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): docker**
- **Operating system: linux**

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![trungtlt](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/n8n/user_avatar/community.n8n.io/trungtlt/32/106503_2.png) [@trungtlt](https://community.n8n.io/u/trungtlt)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://community.n8n.io/t/n8n-crashes-when-using-extract-text-from-a-pdf-file/199832/2 "2025-10-05T14:19:39Z")

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Any hints on your uploaded files? Like size, number of pages.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![shlomi](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/n8n/user_avatar/community.n8n.io/shlomi/32/21454_2.png) [@shlomi](https://community.n8n.io/u/shlomi)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 2:47pm UTC](https://community.n8n.io/t/n8n-crashes-when-using-extract-text-from-a-pdf-file/199832/3 "2025-10-05T14:47:33Z")

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even tried with a blank PDF.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jabbson](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/n8n/user_avatar/community.n8n.io/jabbson/32/87328_2.png) [@jabbson](https://community.n8n.io/u/jabbson)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://community.n8n.io/t/n8n-crashes-when-using-extract-text-from-a-pdf-file/199832/4 "2025-10-05T15:20:00Z")

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See if this is the same problem already reported:

> <https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/issues/19359>
>
> \### Bug Description
> 
> When running a workflow with the Extract from File node and… selecting the operation Extract From PDF, the execution stops unexpectedly with an out-of-memory error. Additionally:
> 
> The PDF file is uploaded via the n8n Form node.
> 
> The n8n service container restarts automatically without writing anything to the logs, which makes debugging difficult.
> 
> Pdf file of about ~300kb and checked on several different files. 
> 
> \### To Reproduce
> 
> 1. Create a workflow with the Form node to upload a PDF file.
> 
> 2. Pass the uploaded binary file to the Extract from File node.
> 
> 3. Set operation to Extract From PDF.
> 
> 4. Execute the workflow.
> 
> \### Expected behavior
> 
> The node should successfully extract text from the uploaded PDF and pass it downstream.
> 
> \### Debug Info
> 
> \<img width="1896" height="891" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/13e7a456-b9cb-4c96-9b31-8592c0325043" /\>
> \<img width="1913" height="887" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2f1ed824-8363-4293-9958-ac99de8ec081" /\>
> 
> \# Debug info
> 
> \## core
> 
> \- n8nVersion: 1.110.1
> \- platform: docker (self-hosted)
> \- nodeJsVersion: 22.19.0
> \- database: postgres
> \- executionMode: regular
> \- concurrency: -1
> \- license: community
> 
> \## storage
> 
> \- success: all
> \- error: all
> \- progress: false
> \- manual: true
> \- binaryMode: memory
> 
> \## pruning
> 
> \- enabled: true
> \- maxAge: 168 hours
> \- maxCount: 100 executions
> 
> \## client
> 
> \- userAgent: mozilla/5.0 (x11; linux x86\_64) applewebkit/537.36 (khtml, like gecko) chrome/140.0.0.0 safari/537.36
> \- isTouchDevice: false
> 
> \## security
> 
> \- secureCookie: false
> 
> Generated at: 2025-09-10T06:47:44.977Z
> 
> \### Operating System
> 
> Ubuntu 24.04
> 
> \### n8n Version
> 
> 1.110.1
> 
> \### Node.js Version
> 
> 22.19.0
> 
> \### Database
> 
> PostgreSQL
> 
> \### Execution mode
> 
> main (default)
> 
> \### Hosting
> 
> self hosted

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ahmed\_Do](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/n8n/user_avatar/community.n8n.io/ahmed_do/32/128228_2.png) [@Ahmed\_Do](https://community.n8n.io/u/Ahmed_Do)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2025, 9:04am UTC](https://community.n8n.io/t/n8n-crashes-when-using-extract-text-from-a-pdf-file/199832/5 "2025-10-11T09:04:22Z")

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Same issue, tested on Docker with n8n version 1.113.3  
-e N8N\_RUNNERS\_ENABLED=true  
-e N8N\_ENFORCE\_SETTINGS\_FILE\_PERMISSIONS=true  
-e EXECUTIONS\_DATA\_PRUNE=true  
-e EXECUTIONS\_DATA\_MAX\_AGE=336 \  
-e EXECUTIONS\_DATA\_SAVE\_ON\_ERROR=all  
-e EXECUTIONS\_DATA\_SAVE\_ON\_SUCCESS=all  
-e EXECUTIONS\_DATA\_SAVE\_MANUAL\_EXECUTIONS=true  
-e NODE\_OPTIONS=–max-old-space-size=4096  
-e N8N\_PAYLOAD\_SIZE\_MAX=16  
-e N8N\_DEFAULT\_BINARY\_DATA\_MODE=filesystem

it crashes and memory doesn’t exceed ~500MB

 ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/n8n/original/3X/4/2/4203c0055a2420f1e15fc9c776eb120c7dc4f8fe.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/n8n/user_avatar/community.n8n.io/system/32/195824_2.png) [@system](https://community.n8n.io/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 9:05am UTC](https://community.n8n.io/t/n8n-crashes-when-using-extract-text-from-a-pdf-file/199832/6 "2026-01-09T09:05:04Z")

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Closed on January 9, 2026, 9:05am UTC

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