n8n - 💡(How to fix) Fix Version History locked for non-admins, preventing rollback of auto-saved workflows (v2.18+) [2 comments, 3 participants]

Describe the problem/error/question

After upgrading our self-hosted enterprise instance to version > 2.18 (specifically 2.18.5), standard project members can no longer access or review the workflow Version History.

When a standard member attempts to open the Version History, they are blocked by a permissions error. It appears the Version History feature is attempting to fetch a list of all instance users (likely to display the authors of previous versions), which fails for non-admins.

Impact: Since n8n v2 introduced auto-save, users can no longer simply discard a draft by leaving without saving. We heavily rely on Version History to revert unwanted changes or return to the last published version. Because standard members are now locked out of Version History, they have absolutely no way to revert to a published state or undo auto-saved changes.

What is the error message (if any)?

A modal pops up with the following error:

Version History Listing all users is limited to instance administrators and project admins. Filter by project to list project members.

Please share your workflow/screenshots/recording

{ "nodes": [ { "parameters": { "rule": { "interval": [ {} ] } }, "type": "n8n-nodes-base.scheduleTrigger", "typeVersion": 1.3, "position": [ -448, -16 ], "id": "93da105e-b678-4320-bc3b-11ed459508d5", "name": "Schedule Trigger" }, { "parameters": { "operation": "appendOrUpdate", "documentId": { "__rl": true, "value": "1na3DcsVsqxmFuPoXtNV0QZw-gT3H5L2SxMzwm6MA7JI", "mode": "list", "cachedResultName": "Conversations Metadata", "cachedResultUrl": "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d//edit?usp=drivesdk" }, "sheetName": { "__rl": true, "value": 1390409099, "mode": "list", "cachedResultName": "Sheet3", "cachedResultUrl": "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d//edit#gid=1390409099" }, "columns": { "mappingMode": "defineBelow", "value": { "test1": "1", "test2": "2" }, "matchingColumns": [ "test1" ], "schema": [ { "id": "test1", "displayName": "test1", "required": false, "defaultMatch": false, "display": true, "type": "string", "canBeUsedToMatch": true, "removed": false }, { "id": "test2", "displayName": "test2", "required": false, "defaultMatch": false, "display": true, "type": "string", "canBeUsedToMatch": true, "removed": false } ], "attemptToConvertTypes": false, "convertFieldsToString": false }, "options": {} }, "type": "n8n-nodes-base.googleSheets", "typeVersion": 4.7, "position": [ -208, -16 ], "id": "4018ba28-d32e-48d7-b9ad-8e385dc29a8d", "name": "Append or update row in sheet", "credentials": { "googleSheetsOAuth2Api": { "id": "XA6P21g4DbMZChXj", "name": "Google Sheets account" } }, "onError": "continueErrorOutput" } ], "connections": { "Schedule Trigger": { "main": [ [ { "node": "Append or update row in sheet", "type": "main", "index": 0 } ] ] } }, "pinData": {}, "meta": { "instanceId": "3f6a36d71518ef85f810c200a76acda1a153c06a1aeb7ae53b8a320320987f44" } }

(Note: You can drag and drop the screenshot of the error message into GitHub right here)

Share the output returned by the last node

Not applicable (UI/Permissions bug).

Debug info

core

• n8nVersion: 2.18.5
• platform: docker (self-hosted)
• nodeJsVersion: 24.14.1
• nodeEnv: production
• database: postgres
• executionMode: regular
• concurrency: -1
• license: enterprise (production)

storage

• success: all
• error: all
• progress: false
• manual: false
• binaryMode: filesystem

pruning

• enabled: true
• maxAge: 168 hours
• maxCount: 10000 executions

client

• userAgent: mozilla/5.0 (windows nt 10.0; win64; x64) applewebkit/537.36 (khtml, like gecko) chrome/147.0.0.0 safari/537.36
• isTouchDevice: false

Generated at: 2026-05-05T08:03:39.690Z