Switching Login Mode (Email vs Basic Auth) on Self-hosted N8N

[Olivier_Colas]

Hello,

I’m reaching out regarding my self-hosted N8N instance running on a VPS (Hostinger) with Docker and Traefik (HTTPS).

n8n.io - Workflow Automation

What I’m trying to do:

I would like to understand how to properly switch the authentication mode in N8N, specifically:

• From User Management mode (email + password login)
  to
• Basic Authentication mode (username + password only)

And possibly back again, if needed.

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Current setup:

I’m using a .env file with the following variables:

env

CopierModifier

N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=admin
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=mysecurepassword
N8N_USER_MANAGEMENT_DISABLED=true
N8N_AUTH_MODE=basic

Despite this configuration, the login page still requests an email and password, and I can’t get the Basic Auth popup to appear.

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My question:

What is the correct and up-to-date way to switch the login mode in a Docker-based N8N setup?

• Do I need to delete or reset a specific file (e.g., SQLite database)?
• Are there other required environment variables?
• Is this behavior tied to the Docker image version?

I’m trying to avoid doing a full reinstall if there’s a cleaner way to switch.

---

Thank you very much in advance for your support
Best regards,
Olivier

[hubschrauber]

You might be working with outdated/deprecated environment variables. As far as I know, there is no way to configure the Docker or npm versions of n8n to use basic authentication.

• The only references to N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE are in source code for the “Desktop App” from 2 years ago and that repository says it “is no longer maintained.”
• There is no reference to N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE in the current documentation.
• The original announcement about the “Desktop App” version of n8n was 4 years ago, and the link from that announcement now redirects to the docs page about platforms, licenses, etc.. That page doesn’t mention the Desktop App version (even if it once did).