How to Safely Update n8n in a Docker Container (2025 Guide)

Locate docker containers:

docker ps

You should see Caddy reverse proxy and N8N container.

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE          COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS          PORTS                                                                                             NAMES
8d3a13c59a08   n8nio/n8n      "tini -- /docker-ent…"   13 minutes ago   Up 6 minutes    0.0.0.0:5678->5678/tcp, [::]:5678->5678/tcp                                                       n8n
8917b5af4d16   caddy:latest   "caddy run --config …"   4 weeks ago      Up 37 minutes   0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, [::]:80->80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:443->443/tcp, [::]:443->443/tcp, 443/udp, 2019/tcp   n8n-docker-caddy-caddy-1

Locate volume data:

root@docker-n8n-droplet:~/.n8n# docker volume ls
DRIVER    VOLUME NAME
local     caddy_data
local     n8n_data

In my case data is located at n8n_data.

Backup it up (replace n8n_data with your volume name):

docker run --rm -v n8n_data:/data -v "$HOME/n8n-volume-backup:/backup" alpine sh -c "cd /data && tar czf /backup/n8n_data_backup.tar.gz ."

Stop N8N Container

docker stop <container_id>

Remove the old N8N container (doesn’t remove data):

docker rm <container_id>

WARNING: Do not remove Caddy container, Caddy is a web server which acts as reverse proxy n8n container.

Create docker-compose.yml inside ~/.n8n folder.

mkdir ~/.n8n

Place this inside docker-compose.yml:

version: "3.7"

services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n
    container_name: n8n
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "5678:5678"
    environment:
      - N8N_HOST=n8n.domain.com
      - N8N_PORT=5678
      - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://n8n.domain.com/
      - GENERIC_TIMEZONE=Europe/Belgrade
    volumes:
      - n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n

volumes:
  n8n_data:
    external: true

Replace n8n_data with the name of your volume, replace n8n.domain.com with your actual domain name.

Download latest N8N

cd ~/.n8n
docker compose pull

Run N8N

cd ~/n8n
docker compose up -d

Fix Caddy IP

The IP of docker container for N8N will change, if inside your Caddyfile you have an IP set, instead of a hostname, this need to be changed.

From docker ps get container ID for Caddy. Run:

docker exec -it <container_id> sh
vi /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Use this:

n8n.domain.com {
    reverse_proxy http://n8n:5678 {
      flush_interval -1
    }
}

Usually instead of n8n you will see the IP.
Put in n8n.

Restart Caddy

docker restart <container_id>

Reconnect docker network

docker network create n8n_net
docker network connect n8n_net <n8n_container_id>
docker network connect n8n_net <caddy_container_id>

This should help update N8N that is running inside a docker on any setup 🙂

If you run into questions of issues you can leave a comment or contact me. Thanks.