# Handlers run multiple times since chef 13 upgrade

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/handlers-run-multiple-times-since-chef-13-upgrade/12021>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [November 28, 2017, 9:53am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/handlers-run-multiple-times-since-chef-13-upgrade/12021 "2017-11-28T09:53:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomhughes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/tomhughes/32/815_2.png) [@tomhughes](https://discourse.chef.io/u/tomhughes)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2017, 9:53am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/handlers-run-multiple-times-since-chef-13-upgrade/12021/1 "2017-11-28T09:53:55Z")

</div>

I have a handler that is installed (via `client.rb`) as both an exception handler and as a report handler which sends email if `failed?` is true (when running as an exception handler) or if `elapsed_time` is over ten minutes (when running as a report handler).

Since upgrading from chef client 12.21.26 to 13.6.4 it seems that in both cases the handler is being run multiple times meaning that I get a dozen or more emails for each failure.

The number of times then run seems to be different for each machine - possibly it is once per cookbook or something?

Is this expected? Is there a way to get the old behaviour back? or just to know when this isn’t the first run of the handler for a given chef run?