I’m having trouble getting my Telegram bot to receive updates in a group chat. I’ve added the bot to a group and sent messages, but when I try to fetch updates, I just get an empty result.
Here’s what I’ve tried:
- Removing and re-adding the bot to the group
- Mentioning the bot with @
- Sending direct messages to the bot
None of these methods are working. I used to be able to get the chat ID from direct messages, but that doesn’t work anymore.
import requests
bot_token = '1234567890:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrSTUvwxYZ'
url = f'https://api.telegram.org/bot{bot_token}/getUpdates'
response = requests.get(url)
print(response.json())
# Output: {'ok': True, 'result': []}
Is there something I’m missing? Is there another way to get the chat ID?
I’ve encountered similar issues with Telegram bots before. One thing that often gets overlooked is the webhook setup. If you’ve previously used a webhook for your bot, it might still be active and preventing getUpdates from working properly. Try clearing any existing webhook with the deleteWebhook method:
requests.get(f'https://api.telegram.org/bot{bot_token}/deleteWebhook')
After that, wait a few minutes and try getUpdates again. If it still doesn’t work, you might want to check your bot’s API usage. Telegram has rate limits, and if you’ve hit them, your requests might be silently failing. You can check your bot’s current limit status using the getMyCommands method.
Lastly, ensure your bot_token is correct and hasn’t expired. Sometimes, regenerating the token through BotFather can resolve mysterious issues like this.
It sounds like you might be running into privacy restrictions due to Telegram’s updated policies. Bots in groups are now limited to seeing messages only when they are explicitly mentioned or when commands are sent. You might consider verifying that your bot has adequate permissions in the group, possibly by promoting it to an admin. Alternatively, adjusting the privacy settings with the setPrivacy method could allow the bot to receive more messages. If your goal is simply to obtain the chat ID, using the getChat method might be a better approach.
Keep in mind that modifying these settings may affect user privacy, so make sure to comply with Telegram’s guidelines.
hey, have u checked ur bot’s privacy settings? sometimes they can be weird. also, try using /getid command in the group chat. that might give u the chat ID. if not, maybe ask the @BotFather to reset ur bot token. that helped me once when my bot was acting up