Cutting an account's Meta connection stops {{brand.name}} from acting on its behalf: no new messages arrive, automations don't run, nothing gets published. But that does not mean your data is deleted. This guide explains how to disconnect, exactly what disconnecting stops, and what happens if you really do want the data gone.
⚠️ Only the portfolio's owner and admins can disconnect. If the Also delete contacts and conversations checkbox on the card is ticked, the deleted data cannot be recovered.
In this article you will find:
The steps to disconnect
What stops
What stays
Deleting contacts and conversations too
Disconnections that come from Meta's side
Common mistakes and how to fix them
The steps to disconnect
Pick the account from the account switcher.
Open Connection in account settings.
Look at the Connection status card. Find the actions on its right.
If you also want the data gone, tick Also delete contacts and conversations. If you only want to disconnect, leave the box alone.
Click Disconnect.
Read the confirmation: "Disconnect account name? New messages will stop arriving." Confirm if you're sure.
The panel shows the "Disconnected" notice and the card's health badge becomes Needs reconnecting.
On a disconnected account the Connection page still works; only the sections read from Meta (ice breakers, chat link, WhatsApp indicators, business profile, templates) aren't drawn.
What stops
No new messages. The event subscription on Meta is removed; your customer can write, but the panel never hears about it.
No sending. You can't write replies from the inbox.
Automations don't run. Triggers don't fire for this account.
Publishing and insights stop. Scheduled posts aren't published and insights aren't refreshed.
The access token is deleted. To restore the connection you have to sign in on Meta again.
Cached Meta post content is dropped. We don't hold on to post captions and links for an account we can no longer look after. Post IDs remain so you can still tell which post an old automation pointed at; when you reconnect, syncing refreshes everything.
What stays
If you didn't tick the box, all of this stays exactly as it was:
Every conversation and the message history in the inbox
Contacts, contact fields, tags and notes
Automations, flows and their logs
The account itself, its name, settings and team access
In other words the account stays in your portfolio, just in a "disconnected" state. When you later reconnect the same Instagram account or number, everything picks up where it left off.
💡 If you want to remove the account from the portfolio, that is a separate job: use the Delete this account item in account settings.
Deleting contacts and conversations too
If you tick the box and disconnect, these are deleted as well:
That account's contacts
That account's conversations and the message texts inside them
Channel events (message and comment texts)
The stored profile picture
That account's events inside the raw notification bodies received from Meta
This cannot be undone. There is no backup; reconnecting the account will not bring the old conversations back. If you don't want to lose your customer history, leave the box empty.
⚠️ Note: The box starts unticked on every disconnect. Give it one look before you confirm, to be sure you haven't ticked it by accident.
Disconnections that come from Meta's side
A connection isn't always cut by your hand. In two cases Meta tells us and the panel drops the connection itself:
Deauthorization. When you revoke the app's permission in your Meta settings, every account connected by that Meta user drops. The card says "The app permission was removed on Meta" and the portfolio's owner and admins are notified.
A data deletion request. When you send a data deletion request through Meta, the connection is cut first, then those accounts' contacts, conversations and events are deleted. This is the same deletion as ticking the box in the panel, and it is equally irreversible.
No notification is sent for connections you or the system cut on purpose; only unexpected breaks are reported. Details: When a connection breaks.
One WhatsApp-specific detail
On WhatsApp the event subscription belongs not to the number but to the business account the number sits in. If you have another connected number in the same business account, disconnecting one leaves the shared subscription in place and your other number keeps working. The subscription is removed only when the last number in that business account leaves.
A concrete example
You manage two Instagram accounts: your main shop account and a campaign account you opened last summer. The campaign is over and you no longer use the second account, but you want to keep the conversations — they contain order discussions.
You open the campaign account's Connection page, leave the Also delete contacts and conversations box alone, and press Disconnect. The account stays in your portfolio, its badge becomes Needs reconnecting, no new messages arrive and its automations stop. Six months later, when you decide to run a new campaign on the same account, you press Reconnect — and the old conversations are still there.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Mistaking disconnecting for deleting the account. The account stays in the portfolio and keeps using its slot in your plan. To free the slot you have to delete the account.
Ticking the box without noticing. Glance at the left of the card before the confirmation.
Disconnecting immediately while troubleshooting. Most problems are solved by Renew webhook subscription or Reconnect; disconnecting is an unnecessary step.
Trying to free a plan slot by disconnecting. The slot is freed when you delete the account.
Forgetting to export before deleting data. If you want to keep your contacts, export them before you delete.
If you want to bring an account back after disconnecting, see When a connection breaks or contact our Support team.