Access token expired continuously

Questions
1

Hey hello

I’m running into the following problem repeatedly. I’m using a super simple flow for testing, and it keeps popping up. The thing is, WhatsApp is working fine on the trigger side, but on the return side, it periodically shows me the following error:

Error: Problem in node ‘WhatsApp Business Cloud’
Authorization failed - please check your credentials

When I change the API access key, it works, but do I have to do it all the time? Why isn’t it saved? What’s happening? My API access key keeps changing?

When I enter the WhatsApp module, it says:

Authorization failed - please check your credentials
Error validating access token: Session has expired on Tuesday, 08-Apr-25 19:00:00 PDT. The current time is Tuesday, 08-Apr-25 19:45:14 PDT.

Issues: There was a problem loading the parameter options from server: “Authorization failed - please check your credentials”

and in the credentials: Couldn’t connect with these settings More details

n8n Version 1.86.0
run n8n in aws ec2

2

I get the same exact thing. Would really love some help on this!!

3

Hi People,

Get the same issue here.
It appear that in my facebook developer console, when I go to Whatsapp > API Configuration, my access token is empty. I have to generate another one and set n8n credentials with the newly generated token to be able to work.
It seems that the issue is from meta…

4

I am having the same problem. When I assked Chat GPT it talked about how it needs to reset after 60 min, but it also told me about a long term token. Tho this might be made up.

Maybe there is a way to automate the token reset? what is the best course of action?

5

Not sure about this specific api. Normally an access token is indeed valid for an hour or so.
A refresh token is needed to keep it refreshed.
Are you guys setting it up as an oauth2 credential?

6

What you have in developers.facebook.com → WhatsApp-> API setup is connected to your session.

The solution is to create a system user and generate a non-expiring token for it.

Here is the solution: How to get permanent token for using whatsapp cloud api? - Stack Overflow

7

That’s exactly what I did and it’s been working. It seems that Facebook/Meta doesn’t want the user to keep using the test token for a lot of testing or production…

8

I had a similar problem. But my misunderstanding was which token to use.
I generated a system user and you have to use the token of that user and not generate an access token under API-Setup.

I think the way how to configure this is not well documented.

Anyways. The token in the API-Setup seems to be temporary. For me only a couple of hours.

In your business portfolio you can create a system user. And this is the right token to use. And this one expires after 60 day or never. According to what you choose.

I hope this helps.

I wasn’t expecting the user token to work as API token in N8N. This is not very inuitive.

1 Like
9

I generated a permanent token and assigned it to the app I’m using in n8n. I can’t send messages anymore.

The error message is this:

{
  "errorMessage": "Bad request - please check your parameters",
  "errorDetails": {},
  "n8nDetails": {
    "time": "11/06/2025, 12:12:27",
    "n8nVersion": "1.94.1 (Cloud)",
    "binaryDataMode": "filesystem",
    "cause": {
      "message": "Bad request - please check your parameters",
      "timestamp": 1749636747085,
      "name": "NodeApiError",
      "description": "Unsupported post request. Object with ID '691930047330363' does not exist, cannot be loaded due to missing permissions, or does not support this operation. Please read the Graph API documentation at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api",
      "context": {}
    }
  }
}

Do I have to change the Business ID in my account?