Whatsapp templates not showing up

Questions
1

I’ve been using n8n with the WABA API for months, and it has worked flawlessly.
Yesterday, I created 20 new WhatsApp templates. They were approved and now appear in the “Send Template” node. However, the older templates I had been using disappeared from the WhatsApp node dropdown, even though they are still active and approved in Meta.
I already tried refreshing the template list and reconnecting the API, but it looks like the dropdown is only showing 25 templates.
Has anyone run into this before? Any recommendations on how to make all approved templates appear in the n8n WhatsApp node?

2

I’ve run into some cache issues on the DB side. Have you unpublished and re-published the workflow?

3

I haven’t tried that yet - i will try now and revert back.

4

Independent of the publish/reconnect steps you’re already trying — 25 is the exact page size Meta’s Message Templates API returns per call, and the WhatsApp node’s template dropdown in n8n doesn’t paginate through additional pages. So once you cross 25 approved templates, older ones just fall off the list even though they’re still active in Meta. It’s a node limitation, not a config issue on your end.

Two ways around it that don’t depend on Meta/republishing:

  1. Switch that field from “From list” to the ID/expression mode and type the template name directly (name and language code exactly as approved in Meta). No dropdown involved, so the 25-item cap doesn’t apply.
    1. For full control, skip the WhatsApp node’s template picker entirely and use an HTTP Request node to POST straight to the Cloud API’s /messages endpoint with your own template JSON body — this also lets you pass dynamic template names from upstream data, which the dropdown can’t do anyway.
  3. Worth flagging as a bug/feature request on n8n’s GitHub too since a fixed 25-item page really should paginate.
5

I have raised NODE-5379 as an internal dev ticket to pick this up, no need to raise an issue on GitHub :raising_hands:

6

Hi @yonifaber , welcome to the n8n community! :tada:

You hit the nail on the head—this happens because of a pagination limit in Meta’s Graph API. By default, Meta returns a maximum of 25 templates per request (limit=25). Because the n8n WhatsApp node dropdown doesn’t paginate through additional pages, any templates beyond the first 25 items get cut off from the UI dropdown list.

The Immediate Workaround (Bypass the Dropdown)

You don’t need to wait for a node update to use your older templates! You can bypass the dropdown menu entirely and specify any approved template manually:

  1. Open your WhatsApp Node (“Send Template” operation).
  2. Hover over the Template Name field and click the Expression button (fx icon) to switch from Fixed to Expression mode.
  3. Manually type or paste the exact Template Name string as it appears in your Meta WhatsApp Manager (e.g., ‘my_old_template_name’).
  4. Ensure the Language Code (e.g., en_US or en) matches the template language in Meta.

Why this works:

The dropdown is just a visual helper in the n8n interface. When the workflow actually executes, n8n sends whatever string you put in the Template Name field directly to Meta’s API. As long as the template name is approved and active in your Meta dashboard, Meta will execute and send the message successfully!

Let me know if entering the template name via Expression mode works for you!

Thanks!

7

Adding to Websensepro’s workaround - if you manage a large WABA with 50+ templates and need to pick dynamically, it’s worth building a small helper workflow that fetches all your templates via HTTP Request with pagination. Call GET https://graph.facebook.com/v19.0/{WABA_ID}/message_templates?limit=100&after={cursor} and loop through the pages using the paging.cursors.after field in the response. Store the result in a static data lookup or Google Sheet, then feed that into your Send Template node as an expression. The 25-item limit is only in the n8n node’s dropdown lookup - the Graph API itself supports up to 100 templates per page.