Need support help - Calls crashing - errors: turn detection failed, invalid message received, somet

[cold trellis]

AI-generated Answer for mshah7

Thanks for the report. Here’s how to triage “turn detection failed”, “invalid message received”, and silent drops with ElevenLabs Conversational AI:

1. First rule out a platform incident

• Check the Status Page. Recent incidents affected turn taking/turn detection and could match your symptoms (e.g., Jul 23, 2025 “Some Conversational AI calls failing”; Jun 9, 2025 “turn taking stops responding”; Feb 13, 2025 “Degraded Turn Detection”). If your failures align with those windows, they were likely upstream. https://status.elevenlabs.io/incidents/01K0VTVAEND9XTW5NVX3ANREAX, https://status.elevenlabs.io/incidents/01JX9ST03QK4T6WZAYKTHNN6FN, https://status.elevenlabs.io/incidents/01JM0P7T0AD0HN4WAKC95RQS94

2. Find the exact failure reason per call

• Open Call History. Failed calls show a red reason; if a call failed and no error is shown, contact Support (include call details). https://help.elevenlabs.io/hc/en-us/articles/34669672990225-Where-can-I-locate-the-reason-for-my-call-failing

3. “Turn detection failed” or agent stuck listening

• Verify no ongoing incident (Step 1). The status posts document intermittent issues with turn taking/turn detection. https://status.elevenlabs.io/incidents/01JM0P7T0AD0HN4WAKC95RQS94, https://status.elevenlabs.io/incidents/01K0VTVAEND9XTW5NVX3ANREAX
• If users often pause intentionally, enable the Skip Turn system tool so the agent pauses without timing out during user silences. https://elevenlabs.io/docs/conversational-ai/customization/tools/system-tools/skip-turn, https://elevenlabs.io/docs/changelog/2025/5/26

4. “Invalid message received”

• This text isn’t documented as a specific public error code, but it typically indicates a bad WebSocket payload. Confirm you only send supported client-to-server events and fields per the event schema, and add onError logging in the SDK. https://elevenlabs.io/docs/conversational-ai/customization/events/client-to-server-events, https://elevenlabs.io/docs/conversational-ai-sdks/javascript/client-sdk
• ElevenLabs has improved WebSocket error messaging; upgrading to the latest SDK may yield clearer diagnostics. https://elevenlabs.io/docs/changelog/2025/3/10

5. Silent “drops” with no error

• Inactivity/turn/context timeouts: contexts close after 20s inactivity by default; you can keep them alive by sending an empty text in the current context, and you may raise the WebSocket inactivity timeout (up to 180s) if appropriate. https://elevenlabs.io/docs/best-practices/conversational-agents, https://elevenlabs.io/blog/websocket-improvements-reliability-and-custom-timeout
• Implement robust client event handling: respond to PING/PONG, add reconnection logic, and log all events (including errors) for each call. https://elevenlabs.io/docs/conversational-ai/customization/events/client-events
• If you’re using Twilio/SIP, re-check the integration: correct webhook URL is reachable, agent ID/API key are valid, and audio format matches telephony settings (e.g., μ-law 8 kHz). https://elevenlabs.io/docs/conversational-ai/guides/conversational-ai-twilio, https://elevenlabs.io/docs/api-reference/integrating-with-twilio

6. Reproduce safely and collect evidence

• Use Conversation Simulation to reproduce failures without live calls, then review the structured turn logs. https://elevenlabs.io/docs/conversational-ai/guides/simulate-conversations
• If you suspect resource/limit issues, also monitor for 429s (“too_many_concurrent_requests”, “system_busy”). https://help.elevenlabs.io/hc/en-us/articles/19571824571921-API-Error-Code-429

If you’d like, share:

• Agent ID, 2–3 affected call timestamps, and the call SID (available as system__call_sid) so we can cross-check server logs. https://elevenlabs.io/docs/changelog/2025/3/31, https://help.elevenlabs.io/hc/en-us/articles/34669672990225-Where-can-I-locate-the-reason-for-my-call-failing

If no reason appears in Call History for the failing calls, the docs advise contacting Support—include the above details to speed up resolution. https://help.elevenlabs.io/hc/en-us/articles/34669672990225

[sturdy flower]

One of the issues of conversation crashing happens when agent is interrupted by user