Gmail Trigger not firing in production (n8n Cloud), but workflow works in manual execution

Questions
1

Hi everyone, I’m stuck with a workflow that works perfectly when I execute it manually in n8n, but doesn’t run in real life.

Environment:

  • n8n Cloud

Context:

  • The workflow is published/active.

  • If I manually execute it (or test the nodes step-by-step), everything completes successfully.

  • The issue is that the workflow does not start automatically when new emails arrive.

Trigger:

  • Gmail Trigger (watching incoming emails)

What I already tried:

  • Deleted the Gmail Trigger node and recreated it from scratch.

  • Reconnected and confirmed the OAuth2 credentials carefully (re-authorized).

  • Double-checked that the test email is actually received by the mailbox the trigger is monitoring.

Still, when I send an email to test, the email arrives normally, but the workflow never triggers.

Questions:

  1. What are the most common reasons a Gmail Trigger won’t fire on n8n Cloud even if the workflow is active and manual execution works?

  2. Is there something specific to check in Gmail labels/filters/historyId/permissions that could block trigger events?

  3. Any recommended debugging steps/logs to inspect to understand why the trigger isn’t starting?

If useful, I can share screenshots of the trigger configuration and the workflow canvas.

Thanks a lot :folded_hands:

1 Like
2

Hello @Banne_Gb ,

The Gmail Trigger (Polling) only picks up emails that arrive after you flip the “Active” switch to Green.

Try this:

  1. Turn the workflow Active (Top right toggle).
  2. Send a brand new email to yourself.
  3. Wait 60–120 seconds or according to your time interval.

hope this helps and happy to further help if not .

3

Hi @Banne_Gb You can try using IMAP node if it does work for you:

Let me know what works in production and published workflows.

4

Hey Welcome to the n8n community!If you dont mind can you share the JSON of the node here? I just tested it and it works fine for me, this is the node setup i’m using :

5

CC: @Banne_Gb Forgot to tag you in the above message