Hello.
I need help.
Thanks in advance.
(I try to write in english, but I’m French.)
Describe the problem/error/question
The workflow stops before sending emails with the “send and wait (SMTP)” node. There is no error message, just “Waiting”. No mail was sent.
I edit the workflow and replace with the “send (SMTP)” node and evrething works fine. The issue is only in the “send and wait” node.
Bonjour @vfavrat Welcome!
The Send and Wait operation only sends one email, built from the first item, and then pauses the whole execution. It only switches to “Waiting” after your SMTP server has accepted that message, so one mail did go out: to the first row of the first branch that ran. n8n runs branches one at a time from top to bottom, so that’s normally “dir pub”. Everything else (the “webm” branch, the other rows and Grist) waits until someone clicks a button in that one email. Plain Send sends one email per item and never pauses, which is why it works.
To get one email with its own buttons per site, move Send and Wait, Edit Fields and Grist into a sub-workflow that starts with the “When Executed by Another Workflow” trigger (Input data mode: Accept all data). In the main workflow, replace them with an Execute Sub-workflow node set to “Run once for each item”, and under Options turn off “Wait For Sub-Workflow Completion”. Each site then gets its own execution, waiting for its own answer.
Also, the Limit Wait Time date (2026-10-01T00:00:00) has already passed, so a new run would resume on its own after about a minute without anyone clicking. And the “webm” node is pinned (the purple pin icon): in a manual test n8n returns the pinned items instead of running it, so nothing is sent from there.
Hi @vfavrat, your webm node also has On Error set to Continue. An SMTP failure can then appear as output data instead of stopping the workflow.
Test a copy in a separate workflow: Manual Trigger → Send and Wait, with the same SMTP credentials, your own recipient address and a short fixed subject/message. Leave Grist disconnected. In that copy, set Settings → On Error → Stop Workflow, unpin the node and move the wait deadline into the future.
A failed send should now show the actual error. If that isolated node reaches Waiting but nothing arrives, check the SMTP server’s delivery logs and quarantine. Waiting means the SMTP send completed, not that the email reached the inbox.
@vfavrat One more thing to check before you rebuild this with a sub-workflow. The Approve/Decline buttons in a Send and Wait email link back to your n8n instance, so recipients can only answer if that address is reachable from outside. If n8n runs on your own machine, or behind a reverse proxy without WEBHOOK_URL set, the links can point to localhost or an internal port. n8n builds webhook URLs from its protocol/host/port settings unless WEBHOOK_URL is set (docs: webhook URLs with a reverse proxy). Set it to the public HTTPS address, send a test email to yourself, and click the button from another device or network to confirm.
Also, pinned data only applies to manual “Execute workflow” runs; production/scheduled runs ignore it (docs: types of executions). So if you see “Waiting” in a real run, that is the Send and Wait pause itself (docs: Send Email, waiting for a response). The “Limit Wait Time” date (2026-10-01) is already in the past, so update it too.
If the sub-workflow approach Deepankar described fixes the stuck “Waiting”, please mark that reply as the solution.
