(v2.4.6) Schedule Trigger did not auto unpublish when deactivated/deleted

Questions
1

Describe the problem/error/question

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I’m testing out the latest v2.4.6 on railway. It’s nice UI, but i’m not sure if the issue i’m facing is a bug or was intended like that. The issue is with the Schedule Trigger activation status.

The problem:

  1. Unclear about the ‘orange’ status indicator on the canvas Publish button. The docs only mentioned the ‘green’ publish state. So orange status means what actually?
  2. I assume that the v2 publish has some sort of similar function as Active toggle on v1, but for this case, on v1 when I Deactivated the schedule trigger ==> the Active toggle automatically Deactivated, hence stopping all production execution, which was what I’m familiar with.
  3. But the same workflow on v2, when i Deactivated the Schedule Trigger, the Publish button got ‘orange’ indicator (maybe warning indicator), but this action does not actually stop prod execution until I manually go to the 3 dots and then click unpublish (which i think has the same purpose of Active toggle on v1).
  4. Or maybe i’m missing any settings/env that can be used for this purpose?

Suggestions:

  1. If possible, when deactivating certain triggers, it’s good to automatically unpublish the workflow (similar to v1).
  2. Or maybe, shorten the user journey to unpublish the workflow. Currently its seem hidden under the 3 dots > Unpublish. If on orange state, maybe we can make the publish button become clickable & change its label to ‘Unpublish’. Clear indicator for user like me to know that the workflow is still ‘Actively running’ even I already deactivated or deleted the trigger. This action is seamless on v1 since deactivating/deleting trigger => auto deactivate workflow.

Information on your n8n setup

  • n8n version: 2.4.6
  • Database (default: SQLite): postgres
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): default
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): docker
  • Operating system: railway
1 Like
2

I read the docs Save and publish | n8n Docs

I think unpublishing a workflow is an important action and the action button should not be put under 2nd level navigation. Better if Unpublish button directly visible.

1 Like
3

Hey @lamanrasmi Welcome back to the n8n community!

You’ve understood it correctly: in n8n v2 the old Active toggle is replaced by the Publish / Unpublish model. Disabling a Schedule Trigger (or deleting it) no longer deactivates the whole workflow; it just changes the draft, while the previously published version keeps running until you explicitly Unpublish it from the three‑dots menu or publish a different version. The orange/yellow indicator on the Publish button means “this draft has changes that are not what’s running in production”, whereas the green state indicates “this exact version is what’s live”. The docs and release notes don’t mention any setting or env var that would auto‑unpublish a workflow when you disable a trigger, so the behavior you’re seeing is expected in v2. Your suggestion about that unpublish button is really good as when working with flows it can be a bit irritating that you first click on 3 dots and then you see the unpublish button, Let me know if this helps

4

Yeah, wonder why the Unpublish button/menu has to be on a different location than the Publish button….maybe in later updates, n8n Team might consider making the publish button to act as Unpublish while the workflow is in active/published state like this.

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1 Like
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Yeah it is a bit irritating but i am just very used to it now, having one button to do Publish/Unpublish would be really great and less irritating