[NOWEB] - Intermittent Error When Sending ListMessages on WhatsApp

[DelBuiTechCorporation]

Bug Report: Intermittent Error When Sending ListMessages on WhatsApp

Describe the bug

When sending a ListMessage via an external API integrated with WAHA (engine: NOWEB), the behavior is inconsistent: sometimes the message is successfully sent, but at other times WAHA throws an error in the logs.

The error message:

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'protocolMessage')

It seems that during the message processing, WAHA tries to access a protocolMessage property on an undefined object, leading to a crash in some cases.

This happens intermittently, even when the payload and flow are exactly the same.

---

Version

[
  {
    "version": "2025.4.1",
    "engine": "NOWEB",
    "tier": "PLUS",
    "browser": null
  }
]

---

Steps to reproduce

1. Send a ListMessage using an external API that integrates with WAHA.
2. Observe the behavior: sometimes it succeeds, sometimes an error is logged.
3. Check Docker logs when the error occurs.

---

Expected behavior

The ListMessage should always be processed and delivered correctly without throwing any errors, regardless of the message content (assuming it is valid).

---

Logs

Relevant excerpt from the Docker logs:

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'protocolMessage')
    at /app/dist/core/engines/noweb/session.noweb.core.js:1142:43
    at /app/node_modules/rxjs/dist/cjs/internal/operators/filter.js:9:120
    at OperatorSubscriber._this._next (/app/node_modules/rxjs/dist/cjs/internal/operators/OperatorSubscriber.js:33:21)
    at Subscriber.next (/app/node_modules/rxjs/dist/cjs/internal/Subscriber.js:51:18)
    ...

Full log snippet (truncated for clarity):

{
  "level":50,
  "time":1745946286333,
  "pid":1,
  "hostname":"1c403dc69a1b",
  "reqId":1417,
  "session":"551597503084",
  "name":"WhatsappSession",
  "err":{
    "type":"TypeError",
    "message":"Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'protocolMessage')",
    "stack":"TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'protocolMessage')\n at /app/dist/core/engines/noweb/session.noweb.core.js:1142:43 ..."
  },
  "msg":"TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'protocolMessage') ..."
}

---

Additional context

• The error only happens when sending ListMessage types.
• It does not happen consistently — about 50% of the attempts fail.
• Payloads seem valid, and no significant differences were noticed between successful and failed attempts.
• Possibly, certain responses from WhatsApp are missing the protocolMessage field and this is not being handled safely in WAHA's code.

---

[devlikepro]

Hi! we'll fix it in the next version, thank you for the details!

One more thing we'd love to ask to investigate the issue with ListMessages - send us engine.event for that message 🙏

Could you do the following

1. Open Dashboard/Event Monitor (like http://localhost:3000/dashboard/event-monitor/)
2. Select all events (by default it doesn't listen to engine.event
3. Send a list message to the number
4. Copy the incoming engine.event for that message
5. Send it to [email protected] or here (you can remove personal info) 🙏

That will help us understand why not all messages have message part, that's weird actually

[DelBuiTechCorporation]

{ "id": "evt_01jt3hq5w4rreqszfvcjrws9k8", "session": "session", "event": "engine.event", "payload": { "event": "messages.upsert", "data": { "messages": [ { "key": { "remoteJid": "[email protected]", "fromMe": true, "id": "3EB0D5A4D0259DB238F39B2B5D9B8CC59F1DB219" }, "messageTimestamp": 1746023448, "pushName": "Name", "broadcast": false, "status": 3, "messageStubType": 2, "messageStubParameters": [ "Message absent from node" ] } ], "type": "notify" } }, "timestamp": 1746023454596, "metadata": {}, "me": { "id": "[email protected]", "pushName": "Name" }, "engine": "NOWEB", "environment": { "version": "2025.4.1", "engine": "NOWEB", "tier": "PLUS", "browser": null } }

would that be it? Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, as I told you, today it's ok

[devlikepro]

Fixed in 2025.4.2