If messages aren't arriving, or your account says Needs reconnecting, follow the steps below in order. A broken connection is common and almost always fixed in a couple of minutes; what matters is reading the reason correctly.
You may be facing one of these three situations:
- You see a red bar in the panel or a Needs reconnecting badge
- There is no warning at all, but no messages arrive
- You received an email: "the account's connection is broken"
How you learn the connection is broken
{{brand.name}} tells you in three places:
- The panel bar. On any of the account's screens a red bar appears at the top: "This account's connection is broken. Until it's reconnected, messaging and automations won't work properly." The Reconnect button beside it takes you straight to the right page. The button appears only for roles that can connect (owner, admin).
- The health badge. On the card at Account settings › Connection, the badge turns Needs reconnecting (red).
- A notification. The portfolio's owner and admins get an email and an in-app notification. The subject reads "the account's connection is broken" and the reason is inside.
✅ A notification is sent once per incident; you won't be flooded with emails for the same break all day. Connections you or the system cut on purpose are never reported.
What stops when a connection breaks
- No new messages or comments arrive.
- You can't send replies from the inbox.
- Automations aren't triggered.
- Scheduled posts aren't published and insights aren't refreshed.
Your conversations, contacts and automations are not deleted; they simply pause. Everything picks up where it left off once you reconnect.
Read the reason
On the connection page, a small red line under the badge states the reason. Read the line that matches what you see:
- "Access is no longer valid (password changed or permission removed)." — Meta refuses the token. Most often a password change or a permission revoked on Meta's side.
- "The access token could not be renewed." — Automatic renewal failed, usually because the token had already expired.
- "Webhook subscription failed; messages may not arrive." — The connection exists but the event subscription couldn't be set up.
- "The app permission was removed on Meta." — You revoked the app's authorisation in your Meta settings.
- "Removed by a data deletion request from Meta." — A data deletion request was sent to Meta.
- "The connection is returning errors." — The reason isn't recognised; apply the general steps below.
Renew the webhook subscription
If the reason is the subscription, try this first; it is the lightest fix and touches none of your data.
- Open Connection in account settings.
- Click Renew webhook subscription on the right of the card. This button appears only in the error state.
- Wait for the "Webhook subscription renewed" notice. The card should return to Active.
- Have someone send a test message from another account and check that the Last event line on the card updates.
If the button says "The subscription could not be renewed. Try reconnecting the account.", move on to the next section.
Reconnect the account
This is the fix for every other reason.
- Open Connection in account settings.
- Scroll to the Reconnect section.
- Click the Reconnect button.
- Sign in on Meta's screen with the same account. The same Instagram account on Instagram, the account's Page on the Facebook path, the same business account and number on WhatsApp.
- Approve the permissions without switching any of them off.
- Back in the panel it should say "Connection renewed. New messages will arrive in the inbox."
- Have a test message sent.
⚠️ Note: Reconnecting accepts only the same account. Sign in with another one and the panel says "You signed in with a different account" and changes nothing. That is not a fault but a protection: it stops the wrong account from being attached over your conversations.
No warning, but no messages either
The card looks Active, there's no bar, but the inbox is silent. Check in order:
- Look at the Last event line. If it never updates, events aren't arriving.
- Don't test from your own account. A message you send from your own account doesn't behave like a customer message. Have someone write from another phone.
- Renew the webhook subscription. If the button isn't on the card (because the state isn't error), go straight to the next step.
- Check the permissions. If you switched one off while connecting, that job silently doesn't run. Reconnect the account and grant everything.
- Think about the connection path and Meta's approval. If you're on the Facebook path and the app isn't approved, only messages from people with a role on it arrive. That is Meta's approval status, not your setup; see The Meta app and App Review.
- Confirm the channel is enabled on your plan. A disabled channel behaves as if it didn't exist in the panel.
Preventing breaks
- Don't put off the renewal warning. Press Renew permissions the day you see the Renewal due badge.
- Read the permission-expiry emails. On the Facebook path you're warned twice, 14 and 3 days before; the second one is the last call.
- Check the connection after changing a password. If you changed your Instagram or Facebook password, open the connection page once.
- Don't revoke the app's permission on Meta. Revoking it drops the connection of every one of your accounts.
- Prefer the Instagram path where you can. There the token renews itself and the odds of a break drop noticeably.
Known limits
- An expired token cannot be renewed. Instagram only extends a token that is still valid; once the time has passed, reconnecting is the only way.
- There is no automatic renewal on the Facebook path. When the data access permission expires, the account inevitably becomes Needs reconnecting.
- Message flow is limited before approval. This is a restriction on Meta's side and applies to every tool built on their platform.
- Notifications cover only the last 7 days of incidents. No retroactive email is sent for a very old break.
- Only owners and admins get the notification. They are the roles that can repair the connection.
A concrete example
You run a café. Opening the panel in the morning, you see a red bar at the top. You press Reconnect and the Connection page opens. The badge reads Needs reconnecting, with "Access is no longer valid (password changed or permission removed)" under it. You remember changing your Instagram password last night.
You press Reconnect, sign in to the same Instagram account with your new password and approve the permissions. The panel says "Connection renewed". You ask a friend for a test DM; it arrives within seconds and the Last event line reads "just now". You missed the messages that came in overnight, but your conversation history and automations were never disturbed.
If the problem persists after every step, contact our Support team.
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