My flow ran fine for weeks, now suddenly 401 and manual re-login
OAuth refresh tokens can expire on password change, MFA reset, app-permission change, or after a fixed lifetime. A flow that just refresh-and-goes can't self-recover.
Try this first
- 1Check first whether the user recently changed their password or reset MFA, that invalidates almost any refresh token.
- 2Check whether the OAuth app in the provider (Google, Microsoft, HubSpot) hasn't been revoked by an admin or security policy.
- 3Ideally bind the connection to a service account, not a person. Personal accounts expire on departure, password changes trigger refresh failures.
- 4Build a separate alert for 401 or invalid_grant: send a Slack message to the owner instead of just an empty error mail from the iPaaS.
- 5Document per flow which account holds the connection, otherwise nobody knows who has to re-login.
When to bring us in
If this comes back across different flows, the issue is in your IAM choice, not the flow. We can look at that.
See also
- n8n: self-host or cloud?Self-hosted is cheaper at volume and keeps data local. Cloud removes ops burden.
- Zapier or Make: which fits better?Zapier is straight-line; Make handles complex flows with routers and iterators for less money.
- Power Automate Cloud or Desktop: which to use?Cloud for SaaS integrations and triggers. Desktop for RPA against legacy Windows apps without APIs.
None of the above fits?
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