Workflow disappeared - docker

Questions
1

I installed n8n docker on Synology. I created account and few workflow to add records into Airtable. I noticed day after the data is not getting synced to Airtable and found my n8n local instance does not have any workflows are all!!! I am not sure what happened but I checked my docker/n8n folder and it is empty. What I did wrong? Please help as I spent hours getting my first workflows set up.

2

Do you start in via docker compose or via a docker command? Whatever you use, can you please post compose file or command.

3

I use Synology Docker app to edit, start and stop.I noticed in the settings file that I have my smtp gmail settings that I don’t see in the current instance the also does not have any workflows that I saved few days ago. I did set up smtp gmail server in the last working instance so this is odd…

here is the settings file

{
   "CapAdd" : [],
   "CapDrop" : [],
   "cmd" : "",
   "cpu_priority" : 50,
   "enable_publish_all_ports" : false,
   "enable_restart_policy" : true,
   "enabled" : true,
   "env_variables" : [
      {
         "key" : "PATH",
         "value" : "/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"
      },
      {
         "key" : "NODE_VERSION",
         "value" : "16.15.1"
      },
      {
         "key" : "YARN_VERSION",
         "value" : "1.22.19"
      },
      {
         "key" : "NODE_ICU_DATA",
         "value" : "/usr/local/lib/node_modules/full-icu"
      },
      {
         "key" : "N8N_EDITOR_BASE_URL",
         "value" : "https://n8n.somedomainhere"
      },
      {
         "key" : "WEBHOOK_URL",
         "value" : "https://n8n.somedomainhere"
      }
   ],
   "exporting" : false,
   "id" : "57379bd3bdf1351afd5b9bb33f2b7da7df4099908d015d1c23441aa52d25a8d4",
   "image" : "n8nio/n8n:latest",
   "is_ddsm" : false,
   "is_package" : false,
   "links" : [],
   "memory_limit" : 0,
   "name" : "n8nio-n8n",
   "network" : [
      {
         "driver" : "bridge",
         "name" : "bridge"
      }
   ],
   "network_mode" : "bridge",
   "port_bindings" : [
      {
         "container_port" : 5678,
         "host_port" : 5678,
         "type" : "tcp"
      }
   ],
   "privileged" : false,
   "shortcut" : {
      "enable_shortcut" : false,
      "enable_status_page" : false,
      "enable_web_page" : false,
      "web_page_url" : ""
   },
   "use_host_network" : false,
   "volume_bindings" : [
      {
         "host_volume_file" : "/docker/n8n",
         "mount_point" : "/data",
         "type" : "rw"
      }
   ]
}
4

FYI - I intentionally removed gmail smtp from settings file above

5

n8n saves by default the data into the folder: <USER-FOLDER>/.n8n
I am not sure where it would be in your case but looking at the file (without having any knowledge about the Synology Docker app) does it not look like it gets persisted. You seem to mount in the folder /docker/n8n under /data but you actually never use it. If you want to make sure that it gets used you have to tell n8n via the environment variable N8N_USER_FOLDER.

So if you set N8N_USER_FOLDER=/data it will save all the n8n-related files to /data/.n8n and they would show up on your system under /docker/n8n/.n8n.

Anyway, the above will only make sure that future credentials/executions/workflows do get persisted, it will sadly not bring back your old ones.

So I would after you have fixed your setup and n8n has started at least once, check the above folder and ensure that it contains data (it should contain the files database.sqlite and config).

6

Dear @jan - thanks a lot for the info. I did plain install and now see the files and data in n8n folder. luckily I posted my workflow in another thread so I can just copy paste it :slight_smile:

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7

Ah very glad to hear that your setup is now persisting the data and that you had a backup of your workflow in the forum!

Have fun!

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