# Read/write Node 'the file is not writable' **URL:** \ **Category:** Help me Build my Workflow\ **Tags:** node, write-binary-file\ **Created:** [January 15, 2026, 5:09pm UTC](https://community.n8n.io/t/read-write-node-the-file-is-not-writable/250515 "2026-01-15T17:09:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![juliusgk](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/n8n/user_avatar/community.n8n.io/juliusgk/32/151546_2.png) [@juliusgk](https://community.n8n.io/u/juliusgk)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 5:09pm UTC](https://community.n8n.io/t/read-write-node-the-file-is-not-writable/250515/1 "2026-01-15T17:09:40Z")
Hi everyone, Im self-hosting n8n via linux debian through docker compose. I want to download a file from my google drive onto my linux server. I mapped a path in my compose.yaml, but I keep getting the error code that the file is not writable. I even ran ‘docker compose exec n8n touch /files/ttb\_docs/test.txt’ and it worked. here is how I mapped it in my compose.yaml: originally this was given when setting up the compose.yaml via n8n docs: ./local-files:/files how I changed it during mapping: ./local-files:/files/local-files /home/user/ttb\_docs:/files/ttb\_docs I tried so many things. I checked if the download from drive node is outputting binary data (it is). I checked the working directories. I checked with different file names. Nothing. SSH works great. ---
**Author:** ![kevmart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@kevmart](https://community.n8n.io/u/kevmart)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 2:35am UTC](https://community.n8n.io/t/read-write-node-the-file-is-not-writable/250515/2 "2026-01-16T02:35:15Z")
Hey I have a rudimentary solution that I built, lmk if you want to check it out. Just contact me here. It’s mainly a template, where you’d need to work out some of the specifics, but we can discuss more if you want me to change some things.