Workflow Execution Running for 885 Minutes – Execution Lost After Stopping

[yow1da]

I’m experiencing a problem where some of my n8n workflows are running indefinitely, with one execution lasting 885 minutes before I manually stopped it.

However, after stopping the execution, I lost access to the execution logs, making it difficult to debug the root cause.

Setup Details:

• n8n Version: 1.73.0

• Database: PostgreSQL

• Deployment: Google Cloud (Docker-based)

• Operating System: Linux

What I Have Observed:

• Some executions are running for several hours (885+ minutes) without stopping.

• No clear errors appear in the logs before stopping.

• After stopping, the execution is no longer accessible in the Executions tab.

• Other workflows, such as Email Receiver and Email Processor, show similar behavior.

Questions:

1. Why are these executions running indefinitely, and how can I prevent this?

2. How can I properly debug workflows that run too long?

3. Is there a way to retain execution logs even after stopping an execution manually?

4. Could this be an issue with the workflow design, database setup, or n8n settings?

[solomon]

Please try:

1. Stopping all the running executions manually.
2. Restart your n8n instance
3. Observe if the problem happens again

If you’ve already tried that, would it be possible to update your n8n version?

[yow1da]

@gmsalomao2
Thank you for your reply
Restarted the n8n instance
but it doesn’t seem to be working
i still get a long running execution

[solomon]

That’s odd…
I was able to find some related fixes in newer versions of n8n:

But I’m not sure if they would fix your issue, if you updated.
Might be worth the shot.

[yow1da]

oh, sorry
i did not update the version of the n8n

so i need to upgrade n8n version ?

[solomon]

I wouldn’t say you NEED to. But since there were some related fixes, I would say it’s worth the shot.

If you are running your workflows in an important production environment, beware that updating might break some workflows and you may need to fix them.

If you want to backup your workflows and credentials before upgrading, I have some templates that could help:

• Backup your workflows to GitHub | n8n workflow template
• Backup your credentials to GitHub | n8n workflow template