n8n-io/n8n · error · NodeOperationError

${operation.error.message ?? 'Unknown error'}

Error message

${operation.error.message ?? 'Unknown error'}

What it means

Failure in uploadToFileSearchStore: after the uploadToFileSearchStore LRO completes polling (operation.done === true), if the operation carries an 'error' object the node throws operation.error.message ?? 'Unknown error' with description 'Error uploading file to File Search store'. This is a server-side failure during indexing into a File Search store.

Source

Thrown at packages/@n8n/nodes-langchain/nodes/vendors/GoogleGemini/helpers/utils.ts:307

	const operationName = uploadResponse.body.name;
	let operation = (await apiRequest.call(
		this,
		'GET',
		`/v1beta/${operationName}`,
	)) as FileSearchOperation;

	while (!operation.done) {
		await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, OPERATION_CHECK_INTERVAL));
		operation = (await apiRequest.call(
			this,
			'GET',
			`/v1beta/${operationName}`,
		)) as FileSearchOperation;
	}

	if (operation.error) {
		throw new NodeOperationError(this.getNode(), operation.error.message ?? 'Unknown error', {
			description: 'Error uploading file to File Search store',
		});
	}

	return operation.response;
}

export async function listFileSearchStores(
	this: IExecuteFunctions,
	pageSize?: number,
	pageToken?: string,
) {
	const qs: IDataObject = {};
	if (pageSize !== undefined) {
		qs.pageSize = pageSize;
	}
	if (pageToken) {
		qs.pageToken = pageToken;

View on GitHub (pinned to 5ac6606e81)

Solutions

1. Read operation.error.message for the exact server reason.
2. Confirm the fileSearchStoreName still exists (listFileSearchStores) and the displayName is unique.
3. Use a text-based or text-layer PDF / supported doc; retry on transient errors.
4. Reduce the file size / split large documents before upload.

function isIndexableDoc(buf: Buffer, mime: string): boolean {
  return mime === 'application/pdf' || mime.startsWith('text/') || mime === 'text/plain';
}

interface FileSearchLro { done: boolean; error?: { message: string }; response?: unknown }
function isFileSearchFailure(op: FileSearchLro): boolean {
  return op.done === true && !!op.error;
}

for (let attempt = 1; attempt <= 3; attempt++) {
  try { return await uploadToFileSearchStore(i, store, name, url, mime); }
  catch (e) {
    if (attempt === 3 || /quota|unsupported|not exist/i.test(e.message)) throw e;
    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 1000 * attempt));
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: The file bytes uploaded fine but indexing into the File Search store failed: unsupported document type for retrieval, file too large for the store, duplicate displayName, store quota exceeded, or the store was concurrently deleted.

Common situations: Pointing a File Search operation at a store that doesn't exist anymore; uploading a scanned image PDF that can't be parsed; exceeding per-store file count/size; transient backend indexing error.

Related errors

• ${response.error.message}
• ${uploadResponse.file.error?.message ?? 'Unknown error'}
• Failed to get upload URL
• ${file.error?.message ?? 'Unknown error'}
• Model ${model} is not supported for image generation

AI-assisted analysis of n8n-io/n8n@5ac6606e81 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/682dcaee574ba130. Report an issue: GitHub.