When contacts from Planning Center don't appear in your Text In Church Groups, or when the integration stops syncing, there's almost always a specific, fixable cause. This article walks through the most common sync failures, connection errors, and how to resolve each one.
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Connection Errors
If you see a connection error between Planning Center and Text In Church, start by refreshing the integration. Go to Settings then Integrations, and click Manage on the Planning Center integration. Click Refresh Integration. This resolves most connection issues.
If refreshing doesn't work, try disconnecting and reconnecting. Click Back on the Manage screen, then click the red Disconnect button. After disconnecting, go back to the Integrations tab and click Connect on the Planning Center integration to reauthorize.
If the integration is fully disconnected, follow these steps to restore it:
Go to Settings then Integrations in Text In Church.
Click Connect on the Planning Center integration to reauthorize access.
Wait for the sync to complete.
Verify your syncing Groups appear in Text In Church and check each Group's Sync Logs tab for any missing contacts.
Contact Not Syncing: No Contact Information
A contact must have a valid mobile phone number or a valid email address in Planning Center in order to sync into Text In Church. Contacts with no contact information at all cannot be synced.
Resolution: Add a valid mobile number or email address to the contact's primary record in Planning Center. The contact will sync on the next scheduled or manual sync.
Contact Not Syncing: Duplicate Records
If two contacts in a Planning Center List share the same email address or phone number, only one will sync into the Text In Church Group. The other will be flagged as a duplicate. For example, if a husband and wife share the same phone number in Planning Center, only one contact will sync.
Resolution: Update the duplicate contact in Planning Center so each record has unique contact information. Then go to the Sync Logs tab of the Group in Text In Church, find the flagged contact, and click the retry arrow to the right of their name.
Alternative options include manually adding the contact to Text In Church with unique contact info, importing them via CSV, or asking them to text a Keyword to create their own contact record.
Contact Not Syncing: Child Status
Any record marked as "Child" in Planning Center will not sync into Text In Church.
Resolution: To sync a youth contact, remove the Child status from their Planning Center record so they sync as an individual. If you prefer not to change their status, alternative options include: importing them via CSV, manually adding them in Text In Church, or having the youth text in via Keyword and complete a Connect Card to create their own record.
Contact Not Syncing: Not on the Planning Center List
If you're using a Planning Center List and a contact hasn't been added to that list in Planning Center, they won't appear in the syncing Text In Church Group. If they were manually added to the Text In Church Group but don't meet the list's rules, they'll be removed from the Group on the next sync — though their People record in Text In Church will be retained.
Resolution: Add the contact to the correct List in Planning Center, then trigger a manual sync in Text In Church.
Contact Not Syncing: Archived in Text In Church
Contacts that have been archived in Text In Church will not be added to syncing Groups, even if they exist in the connected Planning Center List.
Resolution: Go to the People section in Text In Church, filter by Archived, and click the unarchive icon next to the contact. Once unarchived, they will be included in the next sync.
List or Group Not Appearing in Text In Church
Planning Center allows admins to set different permissions for users. If the person who connected the integration in Text In Church doesn't have access to a particular List in Planning Center, that List won't appear as an option to sync.
Resolution: In Planning Center, share the List with all Planning Center Admins and give them at least "View Only" access. The List will then appear in Text In Church as an option to sync.
Sync Log Error: Duplicate Email or Phone Number
If you see a Sync Log error that says "could not update email/phone number because [name] already has this email/phone number," it means the sync attempted to update a contact in a way that would create a duplicate in Text In Church.
For example: there are two contacts named Jane Smith. One has janesmith@email.com and the other has jsmith@email.com. If the sync attempts to update the second Jane Smith's email to match the first one's, it would create a duplicate, so the system blocks the update and logs the error.
Resolution: Review the flagged contacts and update their records in Planning Center so each contact has unique contact information. Then retry the sync.
Note: Planning Center form data cannot currently be synced into Text In Church Connect Card reports.
Still running into errors? No worries, we're always happy to help!
Reach out to our Member Support team at support@textinchurch.com and include a brief description of the error along with any steps you've already tried. We'll work through it together.
