ARTICLE AD BOX
I’m calling the Meta/Facebook Graph API endpoint /v24.0/ads_archive (Ads Archive / Ad Library) and I’m seeing an intermittent server error that appears to be triggered by requesting certain creative fields together with pagination.
This integration worked reliably for ~2 months, but since 2026-02-21 some requests fail with:
HTTP 500
JSON error: {"error":{"message":"An unknown error has occurred.","type":"OAuthException","code":1,...}}
What’s confusing is that the first page often succeeds, and the error happens after a few pages (i.e., once after cursor is used).
Repro details
Endpoint
https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/ads_archive
Query parameters (token redacted)
ad_type=ALL
ad_active_status=ALL
search_page_ids=["70488720814"]
ad_reached_countries=["CZ"]
ad_delivery_date_min=2026-02-01
ad_delivery_date_max=2026-02-24
limit=25
pagination: using after cursor from paging.cursors.after
id,page_id,page_name,ad_creation_time,ad_delivery_start_time,ad_delivery_stop_time,
eu_total_reach,age_country_gender_reach_breakdown,publisher_platforms,languages,
beneficiary_payers,target_ages,target_gender,target_locations,total_reach_by_location
Fails (often after pagination starts)
If I add any of these fields:
ad_creative_bodies
ad_creative_link_titles
ad_creative_link_captions
ad_creative_link_descriptions
Example failing request (token redacted, includes after cursor):
https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/ads_archive?access_token=REDACTED
&ad_type=ALL
&ad_active_status=ALL
&search_page_ids=%5B%2270488720814%22%5D
&ad_reached_countries=%5B%22CZ%22%5D
&ad_delivery_date_min=2026-02-01
&ad_delivery_date_max=2026-02-24
&fields=id%2Cpage_id%2Cpage_name%2Cad_creation_time%2Cad_delivery_start_time%2Cad_delivery_stop_time%2Cad_creative_link_descriptions
&limit=25
&after=REDACTED_CURSOR
Response:
HTTP 500
code: 1, message: “An unknown error has occurred.”
Example fbtrace_id: AR1P_AplSWQw_h9AvYKXb07 (I can provide more)
Notes / what I tried
Token is valid (debug_token: is_valid=true, scopes include ads_read, etc.)
Not a rate limit case (no 429/613 returned)
The same code works for other page_ids
If the total result fits into one page, the request usually succeeds even with the creative fields; problems appear when paginating
Questions
Is there a known limitation/bug with /ads_archive + creative fields (especially ad_creative_*) that can cause HTTP 500 code=1 during pagination?
Is there a recommended workaround (e.g., max safe limit, splitting date ranges, fetching creatives separately, or using paging.next vs after)?
Any insights on how to reliably fetch creative text fields from Ads Archive without triggering this would be appreciated.
