Available on all ActiveCampaign plans. An automation can be Active, Paused, or Inactive. Use Paused when you need to edit a live automation without losing contacts who meet its start conditions. ActiveCampaign holds those contacts in a queue until you make the automation Active again.
Take note
- Paused automations become Inactive after 30 consecutive days
- While Paused, any entering contacts are added to a queue
- While Paused, any existing contacts are held where they are at
- ActiveCampaign sends an in-app and email notice seven days before and 24 hours before this change
- If a paused automation becomes Inactive, contacts waiting to enter from the queue are discarded
Understand automation statuses
Choose a status based on whether contacts should enter or move through the automation.
Active
New contacts can enter when they meet a start condition. Contacts in the automation continue through each step.
Paused
New contacts do not enter the automation at once. ActiveCampaign holds contacts who meet a start condition in a queue.
Contacts already in the automation continue until they reach a terminal step, such as a Wait, Wait until, or Goal step. Processing at that step stops until you make the automation Active again. If a contact would have been released from one of those actions while the Automation is Paused, they will immediately be released when the automation is set to Active.
Automations can remain Paused for up to 30 days before we will set the automation to Inactive on your behalf. You can see the time remaining on a Pause by opening the automation and reviewing the banner in the top left corner.
We will send the account admin email reminders 1 week and 24 hours in advance of a Paused automation being set Inactive.
Inactive
New contacts cannot enter the automation. Use Inactive when you do not want to keep a queue of contacts who meet the start conditions.
Pause an Active automation
Pause a live automation before you make changes that could affect contact paths.
1. Click Automations on the left menu.
2. Open the automation you want to pause.
3. Locate the status control in the upper-right corner of the automation builder.
4. Select Paused.
The automation status changes to Paused. You can see the number of queued contacts on the automation detail view, the time remaining until the Pause expires and a link to the contacts currently held in the queue.
Make a Paused automation Active
When you resume an automation, choose how ActiveCampaign should add queued contacts to it.
1. Click Automations on the left menu.
2. Open the paused automation.
3. Locate the status control in the upper-right corner of the automation builder.
4. Select Active.
5. Review the number of queued contacts.
6. Review the deduplication settings:
- Deduplicate contacts who are queued more than once: when checked contacts in the queue multiple times, will only enter once. When unchecked, a single contact will enter as many times as they exist in the queue.
- Don't include contacts who are already in this automation: when checked, contacts who are already currently in the automation will be dropped from the queue. When unchecked, contacts who are already in the automation will enter the automation again.
8. Confirm that you want to make the automation Active.
Queued contacts begin to enter based on the option you chose. Current automation entry rules and daily entry limits still apply.
Contacts at a Wait step whose wait time ended during the pause are released. ActiveCampaign checks the conditions for Wait until and Goal steps when the automation becomes Active.
Make a Paused automation Inactive
Making a paused automation Inactive removes contacts waiting to enter from the queue.
1. Click Automations on the left menu.
2. Open the paused automation.
3. Locate the status control in the upper-right corner of the automation builder.
4. Select Inactive.
5. Review the warning, then confirm the change.
This action permanently discards contacts waiting to enter the automation. They will not enter when you make the automation Active later. Contacts who are currently in the automation will remain where they are.
Find Paused automations
You can filter the Automations overview page to show Paused automations.
1. Click Automations on the left menu.
2. Click the Status filter.
3. Select Paused.