Manychat Timeout Error

Hey ​@theblack yes that’s a built-in thing in Manychat, it will wait for up to 10 seconds for your system to reply, if it takes longer it times out (the only exception is if the domain is openai.com)

To solve this, you have to create an asynchronous automation, where n8n sets a custom field, and then your automation continues. You need to use Manychat’s API for that.

So here’s the basic workflow that you have to setup:

1. Send the External Request in Manychat to your n8n system
2. Your n8n starts the process
3. When n8n is done, it uses Manychat’s API to set a custom field (and possibly also send a flow)
4. Once the custom field is set, your Manychat automation continues and sends the reply to the user

This requires a more complex setup, but once you have it it works like a charm!

If you need help setting these up check out the troubleshooting calls, we’ve done this multiple times ;)

First of all thank you for commenting.

I do not have much knowledge about this subject. as far as I can see you are very knowledgeable. could you explain how I can do this in a simple way with a bit more detail?

Hey ​@theblack 

So right now you have Manychat sending the external request to N8N and the 200 OK reply contains the response.

Since this takes more than 10 seconds to process, Manychat times out and moves on before getting the response.

The solution is to change the setup…

1. You send the Manychat external request to N8N, and send the 200 OK response immediately (before generating the response)
2. In Manychat, you enter a loop, checking if a specific custom field has any value. When it has a value, you continue your Automation.
3. In N8N you process the response, and when it's ready you use the API to set a Custom Field (here's the API: https://api.manychat.com/swagger)

If you need help setting this up check my site and the troubleshooting call option that I have available.