Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. Techniques are described to enable wake-up signal (WUS) error handling at a user equipment (UE). The UE may detect an error pattern when attempting to receive a WUS from a base station based on a configuration for receiving the WUS. For example, the base station may transmit the configuration for receiving the WUS to a set of UEs including the UE. Based on detecting the error pattern, the UE may perform a mitigation operation based on determining the error pattern, such as waking up multiple cells to receive a transmission indicated by the WUS, transmitting a radio link failure indication to the base station, etc. Additionally or alternatively, the base station may transmit multiple WUSs to the UEs, such as a first WUS according to the configuration and a second WUS according to a reconfiguration.