Unexpected Empty Output During Contact Lookup in Odoo Node

Below is an overview of what might be happening and some steps you can take to troubleshoot the issue.

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Overview

Your setup to look up contacts by email works as expected when matching an existing contact but behaves unexpectedly when the lookup returns no results. In your case, once you test with an email that yields no data, the node then “sticks” in that empty state, even for subsequent tests that should return data. The fact that the companies’ lookup (targeting an Odoo table) works fine suggests that your configuration for outputting data is correct.

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What Might Be Happening

• Test Mode Quirk:
  It seems that when running the node in test mode, if a query returns no data (even though you have enabled it to always output data), the node might not be “reset” between tests. This leads to a situation where after a no-result lookup, even valid queries return no output until you refresh your browser page.

• State Caching:
  The behavior you’re observing—whereupon getting no results the node keeps returning empty output—might be related to how n8n caches or maintains state in test mode. Once the node returns no results, it appears the cached state isn’t cleared until a full browser refresh.

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Suggested Troubleshooting Steps

1. Refresh the Editor Between Tests:
   As you’ve discovered, a browser refresh resets the behavior, which points to an issue on the test canvas. When testing queries that might return no results, try refreshing the page before running another test.

2. Test in Production Mode (if possible):
   Execute the node as part of an active workflow (in production mode) to see if the same behavior occurs. This can help differentiate between an issue with test mode and a more general issue.

3. Double-Check Query Conditions:
   Verify that your query conditions for identifying a “non-company” contact are set correctly. Although the company lookup works fine, ensuring that your non-company criteria (for example, filtering on a specific contact type or field) is correctly defined can help rule out misconfiguration.

4. Report the Issue:
   Since you’re running n8n Cloud (and the behavior might be a bug in test mode), consider reporting your findings in the n8n community forum or GitHub. Provide your workflow details, the exact scenario (lookup by email for non-company contact), and the steps to replicate the issue.

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Conclusion

It looks like your configuration is correct, and this may be an edge case or a bug with how the node behaves in test mode rather than an issue with your query logic nor with Odoo. Refreshing the browser is a temporary workaround, but for a more permanent resolution, testing in production mode or reporting the behavior can help the developers address the potential bug.

Let me know if you need further assistance or have any other questions regarding n8n workflows!