Messenger error 9000001: Message deleted by the user or the business

Code 9000001 fires when your API call references a message that no longer exists: "This Message has been deleted by the user or the business." Meta's error-codes table lists it with the type OAuthException, consistent with the rest of the catalogue even though nothing about authentication is involved. Messenger lets both sides remove messages, users can unsend, businesses can delete, and once a message is gone, any operation keyed on its mid fails with this code.

The typical triggers are reactive features. Replying to a specific message with the reply_to parameter fails if the quoted message was unsent in the meantime. Reading or acting on a message referenced by a stored mid, reaction handling, moderation tooling, conversation sync, breaks the same way. There is an inherent race: between the webhook that gave you the mid and your API call, the user may have unsent the message, so this error is a normal, expected event at some rate in any bot that references message IDs.

Handling is therefore about graceful skips, not fixes. The message cannot be restored, and nothing about your app is misconfigured. Send the reply without reply_to, skip the sync row, drop the moderation action. If you receive the message_deletions-style webhook events for the Page, processing them keeps your stored conversation state from referencing ghosts in the first place.

{
  "error": {
    "message": "(#9000001) This Message has been deleted by the user or the business.",
    "type": "OAuthException",
    "code": 9000001,
    "fbtrace_id": "BLBz/WZt8dN"
  }
}

Treat message IDs as hints, not foreign keys: every feature that references a mid needs a defined behavior for "referent gone," decided at design time. Keep quoted-reply features optional in your message composer so the fallback is automatic. Deletion semantics and related webhook behavior are summarized in the Messenger limits reference, and reactive-feature pitfalls in the troubleshooting guide.