Error handling from a separate workflow doesn't work

[Session_Mwamufiya]

Describe the problem/error/question

I have two workflows in the same project:

1. Workflow one is a regular set of nodes, including an http request node meant to fail. This workflow is active

2. Workflow two is the error handler with an error trigger node in there to capture errors from workflow 1. I can’t make this workflow active, because it doesn’t have a normal trigger

I purposely make workflow1 fail, but workflow2 (the error handler) never gets triggered.

What is the error message (if any)?

There is no error message, the error handler workflow never gets triggered when an error occurs in the primary workflow.

Please share your workflow/screenshots/recording

Workflow 1:

Workflow 1 settings:

Workflow 2 (error handler):

(Select the nodes on your canvas and use the keyboard shortcuts CMD+C/CTRL+C and CMD+V/CTRL+V to copy and paste the workflow.)
⚠️ WARNING ⚠️ If you have sensitive data in your workflow (like API keys), please remove it before sharing.

Share the output returned by the last node

Debug info

core

• n8nVersion: 1.123.6

• platform: docker (cloud)

• nodeJsVersion: 22.21.0

• nodeEnv: production

• database: sqlite

• executionMode: regular

• concurrency: 5

• license: enterprise (sandbox)

storage

• success: all

• error: all

• progress: false

• manual: true

• binaryMode: filesystem

pruning

• enabled: true

• maxAge: 168 hours

• maxCount: 2500 executions

client

• userAgent: mozilla/5.0 (macintosh; intel mac os x 10_15_7) applewebkit/537.36 (khtml, like gecko) chrome/143.0.0.0 safari/537.36

• isTouchDevice: false

Generated at: 2026-01-02T00:36:01.121Z}

[mohamed3nan]

Hello @Session_Mwamufiya, welcome!

@Session_Mwamufiya

1. Workflow two is the error handler with an error trigger node in there to capture errors from workflow 1. I can’t make this workflow active, because it doesn’t have a normal trigger

@Session_Mwamufiya

• n8nVersion: 1.123.6

I’m not sure what the issue is here since you’re on an older version, which makes it hard to follow, but you may want to prepare to upgrade to n8n v2 as this behavior has changed,

In the latest versions, you must Publish (activate) the Error Workflow for it to work properly like normal workflows,

Also, be careful and make sure you read the breaking changes before upgrading, especially if you have existing workflows that might be affected:

n8n v2.0 breaking changes | n8n Docs

[Wouter_Nigrini]

Hi @Session_Mwamufiya,

As far as I remember, the error trigger will not fire from a manual test, so add a scheduler instead of the manual node and setting the schedule to run after 5 seconds will actually trigger the error node. Remember to activate the workflow with the scheduler, then just de-activate your workflow again after it ran from a non-manual triggering else it will spam the error workflow.

Then go to your executions for the error workflow and check that it fired. You can then copy the json from the error trigger from the execution tab and paste it to pin to the error workflow error trigger in the Editor tab to then run manual tests using that error data