Zie619/n8n-workflows · error · Error

The video ID parameter is empty.

Error message

The video ID parameter is empty.

What it means

Thrown by 'Get YouTube Transcript' (workflow 1463). It loops over $input.all() and throws when an item's json.VIDEO_ID is falsy — the key is absent, undefined, null, or empty string. Note the asymmetry: a present-but-wrong ID does not throw here; it is caught and returned as an error field, so this message strictly means 'the VIDEO_ID field itself is missing/empty'.

Source

Thrown at workflows/Splitout/1463_Splitout_Code_Automate_Webhook.json:33

  "name": "⚡📽️ Ultimate AI-Powered Chatbot for YouTube Summarization & Analysis",
  "tags": [
    "automation",
    "n8n",
    "production-ready",
    "excellent",
    "optimized"
  ],
  "nodes": [
    {
      "id": "10cfb27f-ef93-41cd-972e-37dfdcab97ad",
      "name": "Get YouTube Transcript",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.code",
      "position": [
        20,
        360
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "jsCode": "// Get all input items\nconst items = $input.all();\nconst results = [];\n\n// Import the YoutubeTranscript module from the youtube-transcript package\n// npm i -g youtube-transcript\nconst { YoutubeTranscript } = require('youtube-transcript');\n\nfor (let i = 0; i < items.length; i++) {\n  // Extract the VIDEO_ID from the input JSON\n  const VIDEO_ID = items[i].json.VIDEO_ID;\n  \n  if (!VIDEO_ID) {\n    throw new Error('The video ID parameter is empty.');\n  }\n  \n  try {\n    // Fetch the transcript for the provided video ID\n    const transcript = await YoutubeTranscript.fetchTranscript(VIDEO_ID);\n    \n    // Append the fetched transcript data to the results\n    results.push({\n      json: {\n        youtubeId: VIDEO_ID,\n        transcript,\n      },\n    });\n  } catch (error) {\n    // In case of an error, add an error message to the output for this item\n    results.push({\n      json: {\n        youtubeId: VIDEO_ID,\n        error: error.message,\n      },\n    });\n  }\n}\n\n// Return the results to be used by the next node in the workflow\nreturn results;\n"
      },
      "typeVersion": 2,
      "notes": "This code node performs automated tasks as part of the workflow."
    },
    {
      "id": "a7b7740e-7470-4ce0-a698-6043559eb781",
      "name": "When Executed by Another Workflow",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.executeWorkflowTrigger",
      "position": [
        -580,
        180
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "inputSource": "jsonExample",
        "jsonExample": "{\n  \"query\": {\n\t\"videoId\": \"YouTube video id\"\n  }\n}"
      },
      "typeVersion": 1.1,
      "notes": "This executeWorkflowTrigger node performs automated tasks as part of the workflow."

View on GitHub (pinned to 94007c1445)

Solutions

1. Check what the parent workflow sends to the executeWorkflowTrigger and align the key to VIDEO_ID (see exampleFix).
2. Normalize common variants before validating: videoId, video_id, or extracting the ID from a URL.
3. Skip or report bad items instead of throwing so one missing ID does not kill the batch.
4. Pin a sample trigger payload containing VIDEO_ID for local testing.

Example fix

// before
const VIDEO_ID = items[i].json.VIDEO_ID;
if (!VIDEO_ID) {
  throw new Error('The video ID parameter is empty.');
}

// after
const j = items[i].json;
let VIDEO_ID = j.VIDEO_ID || j.videoId || j.video_id || '';
if (!VIDEO_ID && typeof j.url === 'string') {
  VIDEO_ID = (j.url.match(/(?:v=|youtu\.be\/|shorts\/)([\w-]{11})/) || [])[1] || '';
}
if (!VIDEO_ID) {
  results.push({ json: { error: 'The video ID parameter is empty.', index: i } });
  continue;
}

const j = items[i].json;
let VIDEO_ID = j.VIDEO_ID || j.videoId || j.video_id || '';
if (!VIDEO_ID && typeof j.url === 'string') {
  VIDEO_ID = (j.url.match(/(?:v=|youtu\.be\/|shorts\/)([\w-]{11})/) || [])[1] || '';
}
if (!VIDEO_ID) { results.push({ json: { error: 'video ID empty', index: i } }); continue; }

function isYoutubeId(v) {
  return typeof v === 'string' && /^[\w-]{11}$/.test(v);
}

When it happens

Trigger: The 'When Executed by Another Workflow' executeWorkflowTrigger received a payload without VIDEO_ID — the calling workflow passes a differently-named key (videoId, video_id, url) or an empty value. Because the throw is inside the loop, the first item missing the field aborts the run even if later items are fine.

Common situations: Parent workflow's payload schema drifted from this sub-workflow (videoId vs VIDEO_ID); caller passing a full YouTube URL where the child expects the bare 11-char ID; a test execution with no input data; items coming from a form/upload where the field was optional.

Related errors

• 'llm_index' is udefined or not a valid integer
• Input text is empty
• No EDI message found in input. Please provide the EDI messag
• Input text is empty
• monthly_searches data is missing or not an array from Loop O

AI-assisted analysis of Zie619/n8n-workflows@94007c1445 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6e409780c9dce7c6. Report an issue: GitHub.