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Manage and troubleshoot your automations

Once an automation is built, the work doesn't stop there. You'll need to find, edit, enable, disable, or pause automations as your venue changes. You'll also want to test before going live, monitor what's running, and troubleshoot when something isn't behaving as expected. This article covers all of that in one place.

Topics

Find an existing automation

Once you have more than a handful of automations, the list view can get long. There are two ways to find what you need.

  1. Go to the Automations tab
  2. Use the Search icon on the right-hand side of the screen
  3. Search by name, description, or status

A good habit is to add a clear description when you create each automation. Future-you (and the rest of your team) will thank you when scanning the list for the right one to edit.

 

Edit an existing automation

You can change triggers, criteria, actions, settings, and email content on an automation at any time.

  1. Find the automation in the list
  2. Click the Edit button on the right-hand side
  3. From the canvas, click on any existing trigger, criteria, or action block to update it
  4. Drag in new blocks from the right-hand panel to extend the automation
  5. Click Save and Close when done

ℹ️ Note, contacts already mid-flow when you edit an automation will continue based on the original setup. Your changes apply to contacts who enter the automation after you save.

 

Enable, disable, or delete an automation

The status icon on each automation in the list controls whether it's actively running.

  1. Find the automation in the list
  2. Click the three dots on the right-hand side
  3. Choose the status you want
  4. Confirm the change

The main options are:

  • Enabled, the automation is live and will run whenever its trigger fires
  • Disabled, the automation is paused. It won't run, but its setup and history are preserved. Useful for seasonal automations (for example, disable a Christmas campaign in January and re-enable it next year)
  • Delete, removes the automation entirely. Use this only when you're certain you won't need it again

⚠️ Warning, deleting an automation is permanent. If you might want to use it again later, disable it instead. Disabled automations can be re-enabled at any time.

 

Read your automation's activity

The Automations list shows two important counters for each automation:

  • Messages sent, the total number of emails and SMS messages the automation has sent
  • Times triggered, the number of times the trigger has fired and started the automation

These two numbers don't have to match. For example, an automation with multiple email actions will send more messages than it triggers. An automation with criteria that filter out most contacts will trigger many times but send fewer messages.

Use these as a sanity check. If you've just enabled a new automation and expect it to fire often but the counter stays at zero, something isn't connecting (see the troubleshooting section below).

 

Test an automation before going live

Connect doesn't have a dedicated test mode for automations, but there's a reliable pattern for testing safely without risking real contacts receiving the wrong messages.

The idea is to add a temporary Criteria block right after your trigger that only lets your own contact record through. Everyone else falls into the empty No path and exits the automation, so they receive nothing.

  1. Open the automation you want to test
  2. Drag a Contact Field criteria block onto the canvas, immediately after the trigger
  3. Set the criteria to: Contact's email equals [your email address]
  4. Save the criteria, then connect the existing actions to the Yes path
  5. Leave the No path empty
  6. Enable the automation
  7. Trigger it by doing whatever your real trigger represents (add yourself as a contact, submit the test form, push a test purchase through your POS, and so on)
  8. Check that you receive the messages and that any field updates happened correctly
  9. When you're happy, edit the automation to remove the test criteria and re-route the actions back onto the main path
  10. Save and the automation is now live for all contacts

💡 Tip, if your automation has delays (for example, wait three days), shorten them to one hour while testing so you can run through the whole flow in a single sitting. Remember to restore the original delays before going live.

 

Troubleshooting common problems

These are the issues that come up most often and how to fix them.

My automation isn't running at all

Check, in this order:

  1. Is it enabled? Disabled automations don't fire. Set the status to Enabled from the Automations list
  2. Is the trigger configured? Open the automation and click the trigger block. Make sure the timing is at any time (or that today's date falls inside any range you've set) and any filters (folders, specific forms, fields) are correct
  3. Is the data actually arriving? For triggers that depend on integrations (purchases, visits, webform submissions), confirm the integration is sending data into Connect. If you're unsure, contact Support
  4. Is the trigger looking at the right thing? For example, Email Sent filtered to a specific campaign folder only fires for emails in that folder

Everyone in my database received an email I didn't expect

The most likely cause is a Day and Time trigger without a Criteria block after it. Day and Time triggers send the entire database into the next step. Add a Criteria block immediately after the trigger to narrow it down to just the contacts who should receive the message.

Nobody is recorded as opening my email

If you have an Email Opened criteria block, check whether there's an Add Delay action before it. Without a delay, the criteria runs before the email has time to reach the contact, so the answer is always no. Insert a delay (often several hours or days, depending on the situation) and the criteria will start returning the correct results.

The same contact is receiving the same email over and over

The Frequency setting on the email or SMS action is probably set to Always send. Open the action, set frequency to Once or to a sensible interval (for example, every 30 days), and the same contact will only receive the message at that cadence.

I want my automation to loop back to an earlier step

Connect automations don't support loops. There's no way to draw an arrow from a later step back to an earlier one. The workaround is to split the logic across multiple automations and connect them with tags:

  1. Automation A does the first part, and ends by tagging the contact with a specific tag (for example, Needs follow-up)
  2. Automation B has the trigger Contact Updated scoped to that tag, and contains the next stage of the journey
  3. If you want to keep cycling, the second automation can tag the contact again (or remove and re-apply a tag) to feed back into another automation

This pattern, chaining automations via tags, is how complex multi-stage journeys are built in Connect.

My SMS messages aren't being delivered

Two common causes:

  • No Sender ID registered, depending on your region, you may need to register a Sender ID before SMS messages will deliver. Contact Support to confirm your setup
  • Contact has no mobile number on file, the SMS action only sends to contacts with a valid mobile number. Check the contact's profile to confirm the number is present and correctly formatted

My Purchase Added or Visit Added trigger isn't firing

These triggers rely on data being sent into Connect by an integration (POS for purchases, reservations or Wi-Fi for visits). If the trigger never fires:

  1. Confirm the integration is live and active for your venue
  2. Confirm purchases or visits are being recorded against contacts, not as anonymous transactions
  3. If the integration appears fine but the trigger still isn't firing, contact Support so we can check the data flow

 

FAQs

Can I duplicate an existing automation? Yes. From the Automations list, use the duplicate option to create a copy. Useful when you want a similar automation with small changes (for example, the same flow but for a different venue location).

Will editing an enabled automation interrupt contacts already in it? Contacts mid-flow continue based on the version of the automation that was active when they entered. New contacts entering after the edit follow the updated version.

Is there a limit to how many enabled automations I can have? There's no hard limit on the number of automations you can have running. As your library grows, the search and description fields become more important for keeping things organised.

If I disable an automation, do contacts mid-flow get cancelled? Yes. When an automation is disabled, contacts at any step in the flow stop progressing. If you re-enable the automation later, only new contacts entering from the trigger onwards will go through. Contacts who were mid-flow are not resumed.

How do I roll back changes if I've edited an automation by mistake? Connect doesn't have automatic version history for automations. Before making significant edits to a live automation, consider duplicating it first as a backup, or take a screenshot of the canvas so you can rebuild if needed.

Related articles

You now know how to find, edit, test, and troubleshoot your automations, and how to handle the most common issues that come up day-to-day.

Any questions? Reach out to us via email at support@meandu.com