Messages Getting Failed?
If you’re not able to send messages or your messages are getting Failed, there can be multiple reasons for that. In this article, we’ll go through some of the common reasons why the messages might not be getting sent from your account.
If your Notifications are getting failed, the first thing to do is check Delivery Status Report of your Notification on the Analytics page. Visit the Analytics page and select your Notification from the dropdown on top.
You can also reach this page from the Notifications page by clicking on the bar graph icon in front of your Notification.
In the Delivery Report section you will see delivery status of sent, delivered, read and failed messages. You can take your mouse pointer over the “i” icon next to the Failed messages to see the exact error.
Following are some of the common errors that you’ll see there with solution on how to resolve them:
This is a common error message and as the message suggests, your messages got failed because of some payment related error on WhatsApp portal. Usually what this means is you’ve not added a payment method on your WhatsApp Manager account.
Note that WhatsApp Cloud API are paid APIs and you need to setup your payment method before you can send messages using it. Please add your payment method if not done already to fix this issue.
This error usually happen when you’re using a message template with variables like {{ 1 }}, {{ 2 }}, {{ 3 }} and so on and one or all of these variables are getting empty value when the notification is triggered. Make sure you are sending value for every variable from your website / app.
If you do not have control over the values, you can set Fallback value for each of these variables on the Notification page so that when an empty value comes, it can use the Fallback value.
This error happens when you setup Phone Number ID and WhatsApp Business Account ID of a test phone number provided by WhatsApp, instead of setting up credentials of your own phone number. When using test number credentials you can only send messages to the recipient phone numbers that you add add to Meta portal and not to any other phone numbers.
The solution for this is to either add your own phone number and use that number’s API credentials or add a few recipient numbers if you only want to do test. Click here to read more about Test Number limitations.
This error happens when WhatsApp is not able to deliver the message. This can happen because of one of the reasons given below:
The recipient phone number is not a WhatsApp phone number.
Recipient has not accepted WhatsApp's new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Recipient using an old WhatsApp version; must use the following WhatsApp version or greater:
Android: 2.21.15.15
SMBA: 2.21.15.15
iOS: 2.21.170.4
SMBI: 2.21.170.4
KaiOS: 2.2130.10
Web: 2.2132.6.
There is no solution to fix this error. If the phone number you send to is correct and compatible, the message will get delivered and you'll not get this error.
Here are some of the other common issues that you might face when trying to send messages along with their solutions:
When you do not see any stats on the Notification page in front of your notification and everything shows 0, then that is caused because of not setting up webhook correctly. Please refer to the Step 4. Configure webhooks step in this How to Setup WhatsApp Cloud API? article and complete setting up the webhook to fix this issue.
We hope this article was able to help you solve your issue. If you’re still facing the issue, I request you to please start a chat with us and we’ll be happy to look into this for you.
Failed messages when sending Notifications
If your Notifications are getting failed, the first thing to do is check Delivery Status Report of your Notification on the Analytics page. Visit the Analytics page and select your Notification from the dropdown on top.
You can also reach this page from the Notifications page by clicking on the bar graph icon in front of your Notification.
In the Delivery Report section you will see delivery status of sent, delivered, read and failed messages. You can take your mouse pointer over the “i” icon next to the Failed messages to see the exact error.
Following are some of the common errors that you’ll see there with solution on how to resolve them:
Error Message 1 – ERROR: Message failed to send because of error related to your payment method on WhatsApp portal
This is a common error message and as the message suggests, your messages got failed because of some payment related error on WhatsApp portal. Usually what this means is you’ve not added a payment method on your WhatsApp Manager account.
Note that WhatsApp Cloud API are paid APIs and you need to setup your payment method before you can send messages using it. Please add your payment method if not done already to fix this issue.
Error Message 2 – Message not sent. Parameter of type text is missing text value
This error usually happen when you’re using a message template with variables like {{ 1 }}, {{ 2 }}, {{ 3 }} and so on and one or all of these variables are getting empty value when the notification is triggered. Make sure you are sending value for every variable from your website / app.
If you do not have control over the values, you can set Fallback value for each of these variables on the Notification page so that when an empty value comes, it can use the Fallback value.
Error Message 3 – ERROR: Message not sent. Recipient phone number not in allowed list: Add recipient phone number to recipient list and try again.
This error happens when you setup Phone Number ID and WhatsApp Business Account ID of a test phone number provided by WhatsApp, instead of setting up credentials of your own phone number. When using test number credentials you can only send messages to the recipient phone numbers that you add add to Meta portal and not to any other phone numbers.
The solution for this is to either add your own phone number and use that number’s API credentials or add a few recipient numbers if you only want to do test. Click here to read more about Test Number limitations.
Error Message 4 – ERROR: Message Undeliverable
This error happens when WhatsApp is not able to deliver the message. This can happen because of one of the reasons given below:
The recipient phone number is not a WhatsApp phone number.
Recipient has not accepted WhatsApp's new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Recipient using an old WhatsApp version; must use the following WhatsApp version or greater:
Android: 2.21.15.15
SMBA: 2.21.15.15
iOS: 2.21.170.4
SMBI: 2.21.170.4
KaiOS: 2.2130.10
Web: 2.2132.6.
There is no solution to fix this error. If the phone number you send to is correct and compatible, the message will get delivered and you'll not get this error.
Other Common Issues
Here are some of the other common issues that you might face when trying to send messages along with their solutions:
1. I’m not seeing any sent, delivery or read stats on Notifications page
When you do not see any stats on the Notification page in front of your notification and everything shows 0, then that is caused because of not setting up webhook correctly. Please refer to the Step 4. Configure webhooks step in this How to Setup WhatsApp Cloud API? article and complete setting up the webhook to fix this issue.
We hope this article was able to help you solve your issue. If you’re still facing the issue, I request you to please start a chat with us and we’ll be happy to look into this for you.
Updated on: 16/10/2023
Thank you!