Common reasons a message might not send in your Automated Workflow

When a workflow message doesn't send as planned, it's almost always due to one of a handful of common settings. This article walks through the most frequent causes and how to fix each one so your workflow in Text In Church gets back on track.

If a message step or workflow is not active, it will not send. There are two common reasons a Text In Church workflow becomes inactive: changing the trigger settings automatically deactivates the workflow, and clicking the Deactivate button deactivates it manually. If your workflow stopped sending unexpectedly, check whether the trigger settings were recently changed or the Deactivate button was clicked.

To check the status of each step, look at the dot to the right of it: a green dot means the step is active and will send. A red dot means the step is inactive and will not send.

To re-enable a step, open the workflow, click the step, and use the toggle in the scheduling section. To activate the entire workflow, click the Activate button in the upper right corner while editing.

Workflows that use the Groups Join trigger schedule steps based on when each person joined the group. If someone was already in the group when you created the workflow step, they may have already passed the window for that step.

For example: if a step is set to send two days after joining, but a contact joined three days ago, they won't receive that step. Set up your workflow before adding people to the group. If contacts are already in, remove them and re-add them after the workflow is active.

A "Missed" status means the scheduled date for that step has already passed and the message will not be sent. This is most common in Calendar Date Trigger workflows, where contacts added after the scheduled date automatically miss those steps.

Missed steps can be rescheduled from the Workflow Report. Open the report, click the Processed column for the step, find the contact with a Missed status, and reschedule or send the step manually.

If a contact has opted out of receiving messages, Text In Church will not send to them. You can check a contact's opt-in status from the People section. A red dot next to their phone number or email means they are opted out. A green dot means they are opted in.

To opt back in, the contact should text START to the same number they previously texted STOP to.

When manually adding contacts to a group, make sure to enable the "I have permission to message this person" toggle. If this is not enabled, the contact will not receive workflow messages. This setting is required for compliance and directly affects message delivery.

If the group has no members, there is no one to receive the workflow messages. Check the Members tab of the group to confirm who is currently in it. If it's empty, add contacts and confirm the workflow is active before expecting messages to go out.

If you need a single message to go to all group members at a specific time and date, a one-time Scheduled Message is the right tool. A Calendar Date Trigger workflow is designed for a series of date-based messages, not a single group-wide send.

If you're unsure which to use, see Automated Workflows vs. Scheduled Messages.

For recurring messages like birthday texts or annual reminders, the Repeat This Step toggle must be enabled in the step's scheduling settings. Without it, the step sends once and will not repeat.

To fix this: open the workflow, find the step, and enable the Repeat This Step toggle. Set how often it should repeat and how many times.

Enabling the Repeat This Step toggle after the step has already sent does not apply retroactively. To fix this, create a new workflow:

Still have questions? No worries, we're always happy to help!

Send us a chat message or email our Member Support team at support@textinchurch.com