Why won't my auto responder activate?

Activation checks a handful of things and stops at the first problem. Find your message below.

"Choose a list before activating."

The responder has no list attached. Open its settings and pick one. Every auto responder needs exactly one list, because that list is what enrolls people.

"Add at least one email before activating."

An empty sequence has nothing to send. Add a step and write it.

"Some emails need attention before you can activate."

One or more steps are unfinished, and the response names which. Two things cause it:

• Add a subject line to this email. The body is written but the subject is blank.
• This email has no content yet. The step was created but never built out.

Open each flagged email in the editor and finish it. The checklist on the sequence page shows the same list with a link straight to the right email.

"Email 3 is missing. Remove it, then add a new email."

The step points at an email that was deleted from Campaigns. The step itself is now empty. Delete it from the sequence and add a replacement.

Sender details

Auto responders carry the same legal footer requirements as any campaign, so activation checks them too:

• "Set your business name in Settings before activating an auto responder."
• A mailing address problem, worded to match what is wrong — missing entirely, or missing a ZIP code
• "Set a reply-to address in Settings before activating an auto responder."
• "Verify your reply-to address with the link we emailed to you, or choose a different address in Settings."

All four live in Settings. Once they're done, they stay done for every future send.

See Why we need your business name and mailing address and Set up and verify your reply-to address.

"This auto responder is already active."

It's running. Nothing to do.

"This auto responder is paused. Resume sending to continue."

A paused responder resumes rather than activates, and the button for it is on the sequence page. Everyone keeps their place in the sequence.

"Archived auto responders can't be activated."

Archiving ends a responder and exits everyone enrolled in it. That's not reversible. Build a new responder if you want the sequence running again.

"This auto responder changed while you were activating it."

Something else modified the responder between you opening the page and pressing activate, usually a second browser tab or another person on the account. Reload and try again.

"The auto responder is active for new contacts, but existing list members were not added."

The responder is live and will pick up everyone who joins from here. The bulk enrollment of people already on the list did not finish. Contact us and we'll finish it.

Activation is rate limited

Repeated attempts in quick succession get throttled, on the same limit as campaign sending. Wait for the countdown in the message and try once more.