Error Workflow not auto-triggering when workflows fail

Describe the problem/error/question

I've set up an Error Handler workflow and configured other workflows to use it via Settings → Error Workflow. The Error Handler works when manually executed, but never auto-triggers when other workflows fail. I've tried:
- Setting "This workflow can be called by" to "Any workflow"
- Testing with both webhook and manual triggers
- Multiple different workflows
n8n Cloud instance. What am I missing?

What is the error message (if any)?

There’s no error message because the error handling workflow does not get triggered.

Please share your workflow

(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.)

Share the output returned by the last node

Information on your n8n setup

  • n8n version: Version 1.123.14
  • Database (default: SQLite): default
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): not applicable for n8n Cloud
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): n8n cloud
  • Operating system: Windows

Hi @Marcus_van_Geelen

On n8n Cloud the error workflow only runs when an execution actually ends in “Error”.

If your main workflow has any node with “Continue On Fail” enabled, or you catch the error with an IF, Error Trigger, or similar logic, the execution is considered successful from n8n’s point of view. In that case nothing is “failing”, so the global Error Workflow is never called.

To make the error workflow auto-trigger, you need a real unhandled error. Disable “Continue On Fail” on the nodes you’re testing and remove any manual error catching, then let a node throw an error normally.

After that, activate both workflows and run the main one via its real trigger (not manual test mode). When the execution status becomes Failed, n8n Cloud will automatically call the configured Error Workflow.

@Marcus_van_Geelen Your n8n Cloud Instance must be upgraded to n8n version 1.24.0 or later to fix the issue of the automatic triggering error in your workflows. While a workaround may be possible, the origin of the problem is a bug in n8n version 1.22-1.23.

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This is my current version; Version 1.123.14
Isn’t this good.

Hi Tamy,
Thanks. I got it know. I was running it in test mode, executing it manually. It worked when I triggered it in production.

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