Troubleshooting Common n8n Issues

This guide covers the most common issues you might encounter with your BearHost n8n instance and how to resolve them.

n8n Editor Not Loading

Symptoms: Browser shows "connection refused", timeout, or blank page.

Solutions:

1. Check if Docker containers are running:

ssh root@your-server-ip
cd /opt/n8n && docker compose ps

1. If containers are stopped, restart them:

docker compose up -d

1. Check n8n logs for errors:

docker compose logs n8n --tail 50

1. If memory issues are suspected, check usage:

free -m
docker stats --no-stream

Webhooks Not Working

Symptoms: External services can't reach your webhook URLs, or webhook-triggered workflows don't fire.

Solutions:

1. Check your URL — Ensure external services are using the correct webhook URL. If you changed your domain, all webhook URLs change too.

2. Check the workflow is active — Inactive workflows don't listen for webhooks. Toggle it to Active.

3. Check firewall — Ensure ports 80 and 443 are open:

ufw status

1. Check Caddy logs — The reverse proxy handles incoming requests:

docker compose logs caddy --tail 30

1. Test locally — From the server itself:

curl -I http://localhost:5678/webhook-test/your-webhook-path

Workflows Running Slowly

Symptoms: Workflows take a long time to execute, or the editor feels sluggish.

Solutions:

1. Check resource usage:

docker stats --no-stream

1. Prune old execution data — n8n stores execution logs that grow over time:

docker exec n8n-app n8n prune

1. Check PostgreSQL — Large databases slow things down:

docker exec n8n-postgres psql -U n8n -c "SELECT pg_size_pretty(pg_database_size('n8n'));"

1. Consider upgrading — If you're consistently hitting resource limits, upgrade to a higher tier at bearhost.com/n8n-hosting.

SSL Certificate Issues

Symptoms: Browser shows "Not Secure" or SSL warnings.

Solutions:

1. Using IP only? — SSL only works with domain names, not IP addresses. Connect a custom domain (see our custom domain guide).

2. DNS not propagated? — Caddy can't get an SSL cert until DNS points to your server. Check at whatsmydns.net.

3. Restart Caddy to retry certificate issuance:

cd /opt/n8n && docker compose restart caddy

1. Check Caddy logs:

docker compose logs caddy --tail 30

"Credentials could not be decrypted" Error

Symptoms: Workflows fail with credential decryption errors.

Cause: The N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY in your .env file doesn't match the key used to encrypt the credentials.

Solution: Check that the encryption key hasn't been changed:

cat /opt/n8n/.env | grep N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY
cat /root/.n8n-credentials

The keys should match. If they don't, restore the original key from /root/.n8n-credentials and restart:

cd /opt/n8n && docker compose restart n8n

If the original key is lost, you'll need to re-enter all credentials in your workflows.

Database Connection Errors

Symptoms: n8n shows "database connection error" or won't start.

Solutions:

1. Check if PostgreSQL is running:

docker compose ps postgres

1. Restart PostgreSQL:

docker compose restart postgres

1. Check PostgreSQL logs:

docker compose logs postgres --tail 30

1. Check disk space (PostgreSQL needs space for its data):

df -h

Still Need Help?

Contact our 24/7 support team at support@bearhost.com or via live chat. We're experienced with n8n hosting and can diagnose issues quickly.