Skip to main content
Most campaign problems fall into a handful of causes, and the app usually names the cause somewhere: on the template, in the campaign form, on the campaign page, or in Why some messages didn’t deliver. Find your symptom below.

​
The template was rejected, paused or disabled

On the Templates tab of Campaigns, each template shows a status: Draft, Pending review, Approved, Rejected, Paused, Disabled or Flagged. Popcorn updates the status as soon as Meta reports a change. A one-time campaign can only use Approved templates. An automated campaign also lists templates still in review, but Meta has to approve them before messages can be delivered.
  • Rejected: Meta refused the template. A template that has been submitted can no longer be edited (the page says “This template is rejected and can’t be edited”). Click Duplicate to create an editable copy, fix the content against the rules the editor checks, and click Submit for review.
  • Paused: WhatsApp paused the template for low quality, for 3 hours the first time and 6 hours the second. Messages wait and are tried again once it resumes; see paused templates. To avoid a third pause, send only to customers who want your messages.
  • Disabled: Meta turned the template off. Duplicate it, revise it, submit the copy, then switch your campaigns to the new template.
  • Flagged: Meta flagged the template. Wait for the status to change, or duplicate it and submit the copy.
  • Meta may also reclassify a template’s category after approval; the template page shows “Meta reclassified this template from” the old category “to” the new one. That changes how it is priced and delivered, and a template that became Marketing is now subject to per-user marketing limits and to unreachable-contact exclusion.
See Templates for what the editor checks before you submit.

​
The campaign is not sending

Check the campaign’s status first: Draft campaigns have not been sent, Scheduled ones wait for their time, and Paused ones stop until you click Resume.
The Estimate panel shows Recipients, Credits, Credits available and Credits left after. If it says “You don’t have enough credits to send this campaign.”, the launch is blocked until you click Top up credits; see Top-ups and renewal. If it says “Couldn’t check your available credits. This is an estimate.”, the number is an estimate and the exact charge is checked again when you click Send campaign or Schedule campaign.
If Restrict to working hours is on under Settings → General → Working hours, a campaign sent outside the Start and End hours is held as Queued until the next start time, in your workspace time zone (change it on Profile). Turn the restriction off, adjust the hours, or wait. Automated campaigns are not affected by working hours.
A scheduled campaign must start at least 5 minutes in the future and no more than 30 days ahead. The form says “Pick a time at least 5 minutes in the future.” or “Campaigns can only be scheduled up to 30 days in advance.” Pick another Send date and Send time.
A campaign cannot be sent, resumed or retried from a WhatsApp number that cannot send. The Send from list says why, for example “Reconnect needed for” the number, or “Meta is checking” it, which usually takes a few minutes. Click Reconnect, or ask your account owner or an admin to. You can also choose another number.
Templates belong to one WhatsApp number. Choose Send from first; only that number’s approved templates appear. If a draft says the template is no longer approved for the number, choose another one. If the number was disconnected after launch, recipients fail with “Campaign template or sender is no longer active for this organization”; reconnect the number under Integrations → WhatsApp and create a new campaign.
Large audiences are sent within your WhatsApp daily limit and can take several days; the When panel warned you about this. Right after connecting a number, sending also waits until the limit has synced from Meta (Message limit under Integrations → WhatsApp → Account shows Syncing with Meta). See WhatsApp daily limits.
Authentication templates send a one-time code to one customer at a time, so they can’t be used in bulk campaigns or scheduled launches. Send them from the Inbox or the API, and pick a Marketing or Utility template for the campaign.

​
An automated campaign does not fire

  • The campaign must be Active. A Paused campaign receives no events; click Activate campaign.
  • The store must still be connected under Integrations. If you reconnected the store, active campaigns re-register with it automatically; if events still do not arrive, pause and activate the campaign again.
  • The event must contain a valid phone number for the customer. Events without one, for example a checkout where the customer has not typed a phone yet, are skipped.
  • Your conditions must all be met. Check them under Conditions on the campaign page. If you changed the store or the event while creating the campaign, conditions that did not apply were removed.
  • The customer must be subscribed, unless Send to unsubscribed customers is on, and must not be paused (Campaigns are paused for this customer; Marketing templates only).
  • You need credits. Events that arrive while your balance is empty appear as Not sent: out of credits and are not retried.
  • A single campaign handles at most 100 events a minute; extra events in that minute are dropped.

​
Low delivery or read rates

Open Why some messages didn’t deliver on the campaign page. The category tells you what to change: A low Read rate with a healthy Delivery rate is not a delivery problem: the messages arrived. Look at the template content and timing.

​
Customers received the same message twice

  • Automated campaigns send once per event, and some events fire repeatedly for the same order or cart, such as Order Updated, Checkout Updated or Abandoned Cart Updated. Add a condition on the field that identifies the change you care about, for example an order status, or trigger on a one-time event such as Order Created or Order Paid.
  • Two automated campaigns on overlapping events, Order Created and Order Paid for example, both send to the same customer. Check the list on the Automated tab.
  • Automatic retries never duplicate a message: a message WhatsApp already accepted is not sent again, and a recipient is retried only after WhatsApp rejected the earlier attempt.

​
Messages show the wrong text or a broken link

  • In a one-time campaign, every variable and button link must be filled in the Message panel; the form refuses to send otherwise. Check the preview before sending.
  • In an automated campaign, a variable set to Custom value shows the same text in every message. Choose an event field instead. Open the campaign and check the Message section.
  • A link button that opens a broken page usually comes from a nested link: a full checkout address placed in a button that already starts with your domain, or a bare placeholder button given a field that is only an ID. The form warns about both (“This choice would break the button’s link. Choose another field.”); change the field, or edit the button’s destination in the template. A value with spaces around it also breaks the link.
  • Recovery links for carts and checkouts (Their cart or checkout in the template editor) require a connected Shopify or Zid store so Popcorn can verify the destination.
Every link button in a template goes through a Popcorn tracking link, and Clicks counts recipients who opened one. A click is attributed to a recipient only when the link Popcorn generated for that recipient is opened. If clicks stay at zero:
  • Confirm the template has an Open a link button. Quick reply, call and copy-code buttons are not tracked.
  • Check the destination: a broken or blocked destination still records the click, but customers stop tapping links that do not work.
  • Clicks counts unique recipients, so repeated taps by the same customer do not increase it.
See Link buttons and tracking.