Workflow being triggered unexpectedly (without actually being triggered)

Questions
1

Describe the problem/error/question

One of the workflows I have set up has a Google Sheet trigger node, so when the user submits a a Google Form, and the Google Sheet associated to the Form populates a new row based on the most recent Form submission, that (is supposed) to trigger the workflow (which is still the case, thankfully). However, my workflow has been randomly getting triggered and failing every time on the first (trigger) node for some reason and I'm not understanding why.

What is the error message (if any)?

Please share your workflow

The error I'm seeing on the Google Sheets Trigger Node:

The service was not able to process your request
Internal error encountered.

n8n version: 2.9.4
Running n8n via n8n cloud
OS: MacOS

Screenshot 2026-02-27 at 10.16.06 PM
Screenshot 2026-02-27 at 10.16.06 PM2152×736 43.4 KB

Share the output returned by the last node

{
“errorMessage”: “The service was not able to process your request”,
“errorDescription”: “Internal error encountered.”,
“errorDetails”: {},
“n8nDetails”: {
“time”: “2/27/2026, 11:17:02 AM”,
“n8nVersion”: “2.9.4 (Cloud)”,
“binaryDataMode”: “filesystem”
}
}

Information on your n8n setup

  • n8n version:
  • Database (default: SQLite):
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main):
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app):
  • Operating system:
2

The Google Sheets Trigger isn’t actually being “randomly triggered,” it’s polling your sheet on a set interval to check for new rows and those poll attempts are showing up as failed executions when Google’s API throws a transient 500 error back. It’s a Google-side thing, not something wrong with your workflow. Check what your polling interval is set to on the trigger node, if it’s every minute try bumping it to every 5 or 10 minutes since frequent polling tends to hit Google’s rate limits and cause exactly this.

3

Hey welcome, this is actually expected behavior with the Google Sheets Trigger since it’s polling-based, not webhook-based. It checks for changes on an interval (default every minute) and sometimes Google’s API just throws transient “internal error” responses during those polls even when nothing changed, so you end up with a bunch of failed executions that look scary but are basically harmless noise. Your actual form submissions should still trigger the workflow correctly. If it’s bugging you, bump the polling interval up to every 5 minutes or so to cut down on the API calls and you’ll see way fewer of those phantom errors.

4

Thanks, man! I appreciate the insight and help.