Publishing statuses, automatic retries and failed posts

Each account of a post has its own status. You see it on Records, on the Calendar and on the post's page in Content.

The statuses

• Draft — being written, sent back by an approver, retracted, or edited after a failure. Not going anywhere yet.
• Checking — the platform's rules check (length, media type and size) is running.
• Needs a fix — the rules check found a problem, for example a caption too long or a video format the platform does not accept. Edit the post, or remove this account in Records.
• Awaiting approval — waiting for a step of the approval chain.
• Approved — cleared for publishing, but no time is set yet.
• Scheduled — will be sent at its time.
• Publishing — being sent to the platform right now.
• Published — live on the platform; the link and platform id are recorded.
• Retrying — the last attempt failed for a temporary reason; OmniBrand will try again by itself.
• Failed — it will not be tried again automatically. The reason is shown in Records.

Automatic retries

OmniBrand retries on its own when the cause is temporary: the network, the platform being busy or down, or the platform saying "try again later".

• A post gets up to 5 attempts in total.
• The waits grow each time: about 2 minutes after the first failure, then 4, 8 and 16 minutes. If the platform asks for a longer wait, OmniBrand waits that long (at most one day).
• Each connected account has an hourly publishing limit. A post over the limit shows Retrying and goes out when the next hour starts; this wait does not use up an attempt.
• After the fifth failed attempt the post becomes Failed with the message "Gave up after 5 attempts. Last error (...)".
• While a post is Retrying you are not notified; you are notified once, when it becomes Failed.

The retry lock: why you cannot edit a post

A post that is Scheduled, Publishing or Retrying on any account cannot be edited. The next attempt would send the text as it is now, so an edit could go out without approval. You see a message such as "This post is scheduled on 1 channel. Unschedule it first (click it on the Calendar, then Unschedule), then edit it - editing sends it back to draft for a new approval." or "This post is waiting to retry after a failed attempt on 1 channel, so it cannot be edited now. Wait until it has published or failed, then edit it."

• Retrying or Publishing: wait. The lock ends by itself when the post is Published or Failed. A Failed post can be edited (it goes back to Draft).
• Scheduled: click it on the Calendar and press Unschedule; the account becomes Approved with no time. Then edit it.
• Approved: can be edited. Saving the edit sends the account back to Draft, because the approval was for the old text: click Validate, get it approved again, then schedule it.

When a platform rejects a post

If the platform refuses the post for a reason that will not change by trying again (for example the content breaks a platform rule, or the file is refused), it becomes Failed straight away.

1. You get a bell notification "Post failed to publish". Members who can read content in the workspace are told.
2. Open Records, group Failed. The platform's error text is shown under the post title.
3. If the content was the problem: open the post and edit it. Editing a Failed account moves it back to Draft, so the fixed version goes through the check, approval and scheduling again.
4. If the problem was outside the content (the platform was down, or a connection issue you have fixed): an Owner or Admin clicks Retry in Records to send it again as it is.

Other reasons a post fails

• The account needs reconnecting — the platform refused the connection (password changed, access removed, permission missing). The account is marked for reconnection and the workspace is told. Reconnect it in Accounts, then retry. See Reconnecting an account.
• Missed its time — if a scheduled post could not go out within 6 hours of its time, it is not published late. It becomes Failed with "The post missed its scheduled time ... by more than 6 hours and was not published. Retry it to publish now, or reschedule."
• Stuck publishing — a post still Publishing after 30 minutes is marked Failed so it can be retried. A post that is publishing cannot be cancelled, because it might already be live.
• Plan limit reached — your plan's number of published posts is used up. See /pricing or your plan in Settings.

Good to know

• A post that failed and never went out does not count toward your plan's published-post allowance.
• Retry is for Owners and Admins. Retry is refused while the account needs reconnecting.

Related

• Records
• Calendar
• Account health
• Notifications