Troubleshoot common workflow errors

Last updated: May 15, 2024

Available with any of the following subscriptions, except where noted:

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From the workflows dashboard, view a list of workflows where enrolled records have encountered errors. From there, you can navigate into the workflow to fix the error.

If you're looking to learn why your record isn't enrolling, learn more about troubleshooting workflow enrollment instead.

Identify workflows with errors

To view workflows with errors:

In your HubSpot account, navigate to Automations > Workflows.
If any of your workflows have errors, a red indicator will appear on the Needs review tab. To view the workflows, click the Needs review tab.

needs-review-workflow

View the list of workflows with issues. To view the issues in a specific workflow, hover over the name of the workflow, then click Review issues.
On the workflow details page, you can view events that have happened within the past 90 days, including Action logs or the workflow's Enrollment history. Learn more about viewing your workflow history from the workflow details page.
Hover over the issue description and click Review this issue to view further details about the issue.

view-workflow-issues

In the Issue details panel on the right, you can view:
- Issue: view a description of the issue.
- How to address the issue: Select if the issue is fixed, if you want to be reminded about the issue or ignore the issue.
- Error log: view each time the error occurred. Use the filters to refine by object and/or date.
Review the common workflow errors below. Errors can either be caused by how the workflow is set up or by issues with the enrolled records:
- To fix errors associated with a workflow, click Edit actions in the upper right to access the workflow editor.
- To fix errors associated with a record, click the Name of the record to access the object record.
- To ignore all of the risks until they happen again, click Ignore all until they repeat. If you select this for your workflow, the workflow will be removed from the at-risk tab. If any risk repeats or a new risk occurs, they'll display in this list immediately and place the workflow at risk again.

Common workflow errors

The following are some common workflow errors you might encounter, some errors require steps to resolve them while other actions will be retried automatically. In the Action logs tab, you will see Success, Information and Error log events.

view-action-logs

Error logs

After updating your workflow or record, you can try manually enrolling the contact into the workflow again.

Error	What the error means	Steps to resolve the error
The property couldn't be set because the contact/company/deal isn't associated with any target records	The Set property value or Copy property value action is trying to execute, but there is no associated record to update. For example, if you're using a contact-based workflow and the copy property value action to copy the industry property to a contact's associated company, but the contact does not have an associated company.	For individual records, you can manually associate the enrolled record to a target record before enrolling again. To avoid this error moving forward, you can add an and criteria to your enrollment trigger to ensure that only records with associated target records enroll. For example, in a contact-based workflow, you can use the criteria Company ID is known.
Contact isn't associated with a company ID	Similar to the above, this error occurs if you're using the Copy company property value action in a contact-based workflow, but the contact does not have an associated company.
The lifecycle stage couldn't be updated because it would have been set backwards	The Set property value action can only set a record's default Lifecycle stage property to a value further down the funnel. This error occurs if the workflow is trying to set a record's Lifecycle stage property backward, such as from lead to subscriber. Learn more about using lifecycle stages.	To set a record's lifecycle stage to a specific value regardless of their current lifecycle stage, use the Clear property value action first.
Email was not sent to contact because this is a non-marketing contact	The Send email action in a workflow can only execute with marketing contacts. Learn more about marketing contacts.	To enroll and email only existing marketing contacts in this workflow, you can add an and criteria to the enrollment trigger to enroll contacts with a Marketing contact status property of Marketing contact only. To send this email to all contacts enrolled in the workflow, you can add a Set marketing contact status action and delay before the Send email action. Do take note that this action increases your marketing contacts count which can affect billing.
Previously unsubscribed from this subscription type	This error can occur for two reasons: The contact previously manually unsubscribed from your emails. This portal has data privacy settings turned on and the contact is not opted into the email's required subscription.	In this case, the solution depends on the cause of the error: If the contact has manually unsubscribed from your emails, the contact will need to manually resubscribe themselves. If a specific contact was not opted in, you can add the subscription to the individual contact. You can also update contact subscriptions in bulk using the Manage subscription status action.
Email to this recipient has previously bounced	Previous emails to this contact's email address have hard bounced. Learn more about email bounce types.	Confirm that the contact's email address is valid. If so, you can manually remove the hard bounce from the record and try sending the email again. It is not possible to resend an automated email, but you can: clone the automated email to a regular email. from the cloned regular email, use the Send to more action to send this email to previously bounced contacts.
This email wasn't sent because it is being reviewed by HubSpot	HubSpot's automatic security tools have flagged this email for review.	The email will be reviewed by HubSpot's content moderation team. If the email is determined to violate HubSpot's Acceptable Use Policy, the email will be stopped. If the email is not in violation of HubSpot's Acceptable Use Policy, and was not automatically sent: Clone the automated email to a regular email. Create a contact list with the same criteria as your workflow's enrollment criteria, adding an addition criteria for: "AND has not been sent [name of original email]" Send your cloned email to the list.
This email wasn't sent because it is being blocked by HubSpot	Upon review, this email has been determined to violate the policies outlined in HubSpot's Acceptable Use Policy, or the email was blocked by HubSpot’s automated systems.	The email will be reviewed by HubSpot's content moderation team. If the email is determined to violate HubSpot's Acceptable Use Policy, the email will be stopped. If the email is not in violation of HubSpot's Acceptable Use Policy, and was not automatically sent: Clone the automated email to a regular email. Create a contact list with the same criteria as your workflow's enrollment criteria, adding an addition criteria for: "AND has not been sent [name of original email]" Send your cloned email to the list.
Recipient was suppressed due to low engagement	Graymail suppression has been enabled in either: the specific automated email the account's marketing email settings Learn more about graymail and unengaged contacts in HubSpot.	To send the email to unengaged contacts, ensure that graymail suppression has been turned off. First, check that the Don't send to unengaged contacts checkbox is cleared in the Send tab of the workflow's automated email. After, ensure that the Don't send to unengaged contacts switch is toggled off in your account's marketing email subscription settings.
Action was skipped because it would execute in the past	The workflow is a Center on a date or Center on a date property contact-based workflow, and the contact was enrolled after the set date for an action has passed. For example, if the workflow has been set up to send an email on 11th November, but the contact is enrolled after the execution date on 12th November.	For workflows with actions that are meant to be triggered on a specific date, you can ignore this error. The enrolled contact will skip to the next available action. For workflows with a recurring purpose, such as to trigger an email on a customer's birthday or anniversary, you can set the workflow to recur annually. This will enable the customer to enroll in the workflow and execute all workflow actions regardless of when they were enrolled.
Outside time window settings. Action rescheduled for [new date and time]	The What times do you want the actions to execute workflow setting has been set to a specific timeframe, but the enrolled record has reached an action while outside of this timeframe.	To allow your workflow actions to execute at any time, in the workflow editor: Click the settings tab. Under What times do you want the actions to execute, select Any time. Alternatively, if you only want actions to execute in a specific timeframe, you can ignore the error and the action will execute in the next eligible date and time.
Unable to send email notification	An internal notification email was unable to be sent to the specified user.	To receive internal email notifications: Ensure that your user settings are toggled on for email notifications. Ensure that the workflow type notification is turned on in your user settings. Troubleshoot why you're not receiving notifications.

Information logs

The following are some common workflow information logs you might encounter in the action log of a workflow. They will retry automatically at a later time.

Information	What the information means
Rotate failed because other updates were attempted at the same time. The action will retry soon.	HubSpot will only allow one object to be rotated at a time in order to ensure fairness in distribution. If multiple objects are executing the rotate object action at the same time, only one will be allowed through while the others retry. This is because multiple objects within the same workflow were getting rotated at the same time.
Custom code wasn't able to execute, but will retry soon.	The action created was unable to execute. For further details please contact the support team.
Action failed because HubSpot is being rate limited by the connected app, but will retry soon.	A limit was reached while transferring data between HubSpot and the connected app. The action will try again.
Webhook wasn't able to execute, but will retry soon.	HubSpot allows webhooks a certain time frame to execute and send a response back. If the server is too slow to respond, HubSpot will log it as failed and will retry the action. If the responding server is slow, the actions associated with the webhook may execute, but because there was no reply in the time frame, HubSpot logged it as failed and will retry at a later point.
Webhook failed because of a server error, but will retry soon	HubSpot received a failed response from the external Webhook server.
This action wasn't able to execute, but will retry soon.	The action created was unable to execute. For further details please contact the support team.
Action failed because the connected app took too long to respond, but will retry soon.	There was a timeout in the requested action from the connected app. The action will try again.

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