Troubleshooting & Error Diagnostics

Raw MD
Common errors, how to read error.log, and fixing webhook handshake issues.
4 min read Botlify Cloud Updated October 2026

1. The Bot Does Not Respond to /start

If your bot is not replying to messages, check these 3 common causes:

  • Check Webhook Status: Ensure the status badge in Bot Studio displays ACTIVE. If paused, click Re-Sync Webhook.
  • Syntax Errors: Check Error Logs in Bot Studio. A missing semicolon or typo in PHP will cause an immediate fatal error.
  • Run Webhook Simulator: Click Simulate /start in Bot Studio to see the exact PHP output and stack trace.

2. Telegram cURL Timeouts

Always keep Telegram API cURL timeouts reasonable (10–15 seconds). Never execute heavy blocking operations (like large external web scrapes) synchronously inside the webhook handler; instead, delegate them to background cron jobs.

3. Official Support

Need personalized help from the Botlify engineering team? Reach us via:

Troubleshooting: Connection Timed Out After 5001 Milliseconds

Cause: A strict 5-second cURL connection timeout (CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT => 5) causes outgoing calls to api.telegram.org to abort during temporary network latency spikes or TCP SYN retransmissions.

Solution: In includes/telegram.php and your bot's bot() cURL wrapper, configure CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT => 8 or 10 and CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 15 or 20. Additionally, implement socket auto-reset ($ch = null;) on error so stale connections are never reused.

Troubleshooting: Security Sandbox Violation (Backtick Operator)

Cause: Older sandbox engines mistakenly flagged backticks inside Telegram Markdown strings (e.g., "Your ID is `123`") or MySQL queries as shell execution operators.

Solution: The Botlify Sandbox now utilizes native PHP tokenization (token_get_all), ensuring that string literals containing backticks and Telegram commands such as /home are recognized as safe and permitted.