I solved my problem. I just wanted to let others know about it, since I wasn’t able to find something about this. Usually for open source projects I file issues and hope that someone more competent and friendly can pick it up. But the n8n “community” and developers appear to favor the automation paradox and send tons of security issues by newsletters (well okay at least they are reasonably open about their mistakes).
Describe the problem/error/question
The workflow I had was working fine until (~before~) yesterday. I just downloads a file from Google Drive/Sheets on a schedule and puts it as is on the system that runs n8n (and a few other things).
It seems like in the past Google by default gave you Open Office formats (which they don’t actually use for their services, but some custom implementation of that, I digress…), which was perfect for me. I never had to bother with format conversions.
Since yesterday I’m getting notifications that this workflow has failed. It’s not an authentication error, but an internal error (HTTP 500), so it’s not my fault as a user (somehow). Today I tried to download the file on my android device and noticed that the menu items have changed. I can download the file, which gives me a PDF, or I can download the file in Microsoft format (for Google Sheets this is XLSX).
So when I reconfigure my workflow with format conversion to PDF (meh) or XLSX it works again. I haven’t tried CSV.
TL;DR: It looks like Google has removed (some?) Open Office formats. HTTP 500 class errors imply that the user didn’t do anything wrong, but when nodes send requests to servers which they can’t handle… well something is off and the user should be given clear instructions on what to do. Eventually Open Office formats need to be removed from the respective nodes. T_T I had no time yet to dig through product announcements and Google documentation yet to find such a deprecation notice.
What is the error message (if any)?
Request failed with status code 500
Please share your workflow
Share the output returned by the last node
Error code
500
Full message
Request failed with status code 500
Error data
{ “type”: “Buffer”, “data”: [ 123, 10, 32, 32, 34, 101, 114, 114, 111, 114, 34, 58, 32, 123, 10, 32, 32, 32, 32, 34, 99, 111, 100, 101, 34, 58, 32, 53, 48, 48, 44, 10, 32, 32, 32, 32, 34, 109, 101, 115, 115, 97, 103, 101, 34, 58, 32, 34, 73, 110, 116, 101, 114, 110, 97, 108, 32, 69, 114, 114, 111, 114, 34, 44, 10, 32, 32, 32, 32, 34, 101, 114, 114, 111, 114, 115, 34, 58, 32, 91, 10, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 123, 10, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 34, 109, 101, 115, 115, 97, 103, 101, 34, 58, 32, 34, 73, 110, 116, 101, 114, 110, 97, 108, 32, 69, 114, 114, 111, 114, 34, 44, 10, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 34, 100, 111, 109, 97, 105, 110, 34, 58, 32, 34, 103, 108, 111, 98, 97, 108, 34, 44, 10, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 34, 114, 101, 97, 115, 111, 110, 34, 58, 32, 34, 105, 110, 116, 101, 114, 110, 97, 108, 69, 114, 114, 111, 114, 34, 10, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 125, 10, 32, 32, 32, 32, 93, 10, 32, 32, 125, 10, 125, 10 ] }
Node type
n8n-nodes-base.googleDrive
Node version
3 (Latest)
n8n version
2.31.6 (Self Hosted)
Time
7/25/2026, 12:33:38 PM
Stack trace
NodeApiError: The service was not able to process your request at ExecuteContext.httpRequestWithAuthentication (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@file+packages+core_@opentelemetry+api@1.9.0_@opentelemetry+exporter-trace-otlp_56f5a5be5f9a76dfbcdc404d6ec4dea5/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/node-execution-context/utils/request-helpers/authentication.ts:145:9) at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5) at ExecuteContext.httpRequestWithAuthentication (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@file+packages+core_@opentelemetry+api@1.9.0_@opentelemetry+exporter-trace-otlp_56f5a5be5f9a76dfbcdc404d6ec4dea5/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/node-execution-context/utils/request-helpers/factory.ts:119:11) at ExecuteContext.googleApiRequest (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-nodes-base@file+packages+nodes-base_@opentelemetry+api@1.9.0_@opentelemetry+exporte_9e31dcec10980323a9c957753d2416c7/node_modules/n8n-nodes-base/nodes/Google/Drive/v2/transport/index.ts:54:11) at ExecuteContext.execute (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-nodes-base@file+packages+nodes-base_@opentelemetry+api@1.9.0_@opentelemetry+exporte_9e31dcec10980323a9c957753d2416c7/node_modules/n8n-nodes-base/nodes/Google/Drive/v2/actions/file/download.operation.ts:240:14) at ExecuteContext.router (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-nodes-base@file+packages+nodes-base_@opentelemetry+api@1.9.0_@opentelemetry+exporte_9e31dcec10980323a9c957753d2416c7/node_modules/n8n-nodes-base/nodes/Google/Drive/v2/actions/router.ts:29:26) at ExecuteContext.execute (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-nodes-base@file+packages+nodes-base_@opentelemetry+api@1.9.0_@opentelemetry+exporte_9e31dcec10980323a9c957753d2416c7/node_modules/n8n-nodes-base/nodes/Google/Drive/v2/GoogleDriveV2.node.ts:25:10) at WorkflowExecute.executeNode (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@file+packages+core_@opentelemetry+api@1.9.0_@opentelemetry+exporter-trace-otlp_56f5a5be5f9a76dfbcdc404d6ec4dea5/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1081:8) at WorkflowExecute.runNode (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@file+packages+core_@opentelemetry+api@1.9.0_@opentelemetry+exporter-trace-otlp_56f5a5be5f9a76dfbcdc404d6ec4dea5/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1381:11) at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@file+packages+core_@opentelemetry+api@1.9.0_@opentelemetry+exporter-trace-otlp_56f5a5be5f9a76dfbcdc404d6ec4dea5/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1854:27
Information on your n8n setup
- n8n version: 2.31.6
- Database (default: SQLite): SQLite
- n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): default
- Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): Docker
- Operating system: Ubuntu 24.04