IMAP trigger isn't executed automatically

Help me Build my Workflow
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I have this simple imap email trigger, this workflow worked before.

I suppose I changes something over that I forgot or there might be a probleme with n8n since the workflow works still fine if I test it by clicking execute workflow. However when I publish the workflow and try to execute the program by just sending a email ( which should execute the workflow ) nothing happens.

Any ideas ?

Thank you so much for any help !

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Hi there! This is a common issue with the IMAP Email Trigger in production mode versus manual execution.

When you click Execute Workflow manually, n8n performs an instant one-time fetch. However, in active/published mode, the trigger relies on maintaining a persistent IMAP IDLE connection or polling state.

Here are a few steps to fix this:

  1. Check the Action Parameter:
    Currently, your Action is set to Nothing. If Fetch Only New Emails is enabled without marking the email as read or moving it, n8n sometimes fails to track the read/unread state properly in production. Try setting Action to Mark as Read (or move it to a specific folder).

  2. Simplify Custom Email Rules:
    Since you already have Fetch Only New Emails toggled ON, try removing ["UNSEEN"] from the Custom Email Rules field, as applying both can sometimes create conflict filters on certain mail providers (like Gmail or Outlook).

  3. Check the Active Status & Executions Log:

    • Make sure the main workflow toggle switch in the top-right corner is set to Active.
    • Go to the Executions tab on the left sidebar to see if the workflow is actually triggering in the background but failing silently on the next nodes.

  4. Alternative Reliable Workaround (Schedule + IMAP Read):
    If IMAP IDLE connections keep dropping on your server instance, a more stable pattern is replacing the IMAP Trigger with a Schedule Trigger (e.g., every 5 minutes) connected to an Email Read (IMAP) node.

Hope this helps solve the issue! Let me know if you need any further adjustments to your workflow logic.

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Hello!

I’ve applied your tipps, but without success. After a few more hours I found out that the problem comes up after failing to connect when my server I build up the connection isn’t started yet. As soon as that happens the workflow doesn’t trigger anymore. Then I just duplicate the workflow and unpublish the old one and it works perfectly fine.

Thank you so much for the tipps though, got me closer to finding a solution