My Telegram bot code runs but doesn't respond to commands

Other Questions Telegram bot
1

I wrote a basic Telegram bot but it’s not working properly. When I run the script, it doesn’t crash or show errors, but the bot doesn’t reply to any messages I send. Here’s what I have:

from telegram import Update
from telegram.ext import Updater, CommandHandler, CallbackContext

def greet_user(update: Update, context: CallbackContext) -> None:
    update.message.reply_text(f'Hi there {update.effective_user.first_name}!')

bot_updater = Updater('BOT_TOKEN_HERE')
bot_updater.dispatcher.add_handler(CommandHandler('start', greet_user))
bot_updater.start_polling()
bot_updater.idle()

The bot appears to be running since the script doesn’t exit, but when I message it or try commands, nothing happens. What am I missing here?

2

First, test if your bot token works by hitting the Telegram API directly. Replace ‘BOT_TOKEN_HERE’ with your actual token - yeah, people miss this all the time. I had the same problem once. Bot was running but wouldn’t respond because I was testing in a group chat where it wasn’t even a member. Message the bot privately first to rule that out. Also check your python-telegram-bot version. Your code looks like it’s for an older version, but if you’re on v20+, the syntax changed completely - you’ll need Application instead of Updater.

3

Hit this same problem last month. Your code’s structured right, but try these debugging steps. First, double-check your bot token hasn’t been regenerated - I’ve burned hours on expired tokens. Second, throw some print statements in your handler to see if the bot’s getting updates. Third, make sure you’re sending /start with the slash, not just “start”. Also check if you’re on a network that blocks Telegram’s servers. Add print("Bot started") after start_polling() and print("Received message") at the start of your handler to see what’s going on. Sometimes the bot works locally but can’t reach Telegram’s API.

4

first, make sure botfather actually approved ur bot. people often create bots but don’t finish the setup. also try adding request_kwargs={'read_timeout': 6, 'connect_timeout': 7} to ur updater - i had the same issue and it was network timeouts silently blocking everything.