If you’re having trouble authenticating with Meetup’s API, you might see errors such as 401 Unauthorized, failed authorization attempts, or queries returning empty or unexpected results. This guide will help you identify the root cause and get back on track.
Common Symptoms
You may be experiencing an authentication issue if:
You cannot authenticate or your request is rejected
You receive a 401 error
Your OAuth authorization flow fails
Your query executes but returns empty or null data → Authentication failed or the credentials are invalid
The API returns details for the wrong user → You are using client credentials that belong to a different Meetup account
Data you expect to see is missing or unavailable → The authenticated account lacks the required permissions, or the data isn’t available in the third-party API schema.
These issues usually indicate a problem with your credentials, your subscription status, or the account the API is authenticating as.
How to fix authentication issues
Follow these steps to diagnose and resolve the most common problems:
Confirm your Meetup Pro subscription. Only accounts with an active Pro subscription can create API clients. If the Pro subscription for the account that created your OAuth client has expired, authentication may fail.
Verify your client ID and secret. Double-check that you are using the correct Client ID and Client secret — Even small typos can cause authentication to fail.
-
Check OAuth redirect URL configuration (OAuth users only). If you’re using the OAuth authorization flow, the redirect URL you use in your application must exactly match the URL registered in your Meetup OAuth client settings.
Any mismatch — including trailing slashes or differences in protocol (http vs. https) — will cause the authorization flow to fail.
-
Validate your JWT token (JWT users only). If you generated a JWT token, make sure:
- The token has not expired
- It has not been revoked
- It was created using the correct OAuth client credentials
Run a self-query test to confirm authentication. The fastest way to confirm whether your authentication is working is to run a simple self query in the GraphQL Playground:
{
self {
id
name
email
}
}
💡 What this tells you
- If the query fails → your authentication is not working
- If the wrong user is returned → you’re using credentials from a different account
- If the query works → your authentication is set up correctly, and the issue may be related to permissions or schema limitations
Still need help?
If you’ve tried the steps above and you’re still having trouble, feel free to reach out to our Support team with:
- The exact error message you’re seeing
- The authentication method you’re using (OAuth or JWT)
- The result of your self query
We’re here to help you get your integration running smoothly.