Why didn't my automation reply or send a DM?

1. Is the automation switched on?

Open Automations and find it in the list. Its status switch must show Live. If it says Inactive, switch it on. Automations are live as soon as they're created, so this usually means someone paused it.

2. Did the comment qualify?

An automation only runs on a comment that is:

• New. Comments posted before the automation existed aren't picked up. On Pro and Business, a one-post automation can catch up on the last 7 days with Re-run on past comments, in the automation's More menu.
• Top-level. Replies inside someone else's comment thread never trigger automations.
• From someone else. Comments from the Instagram account you connected are ignored, so you can't test from it. Use a second account.
• Written. A comment with no text, such as a lone GIF or sticker, never triggers an automation.
• From someone who isn't restricted. Comments from people on your Restricted people list are hidden or deleted instead, and skip automations.

3. Did the keyword actually match?

A keyword matches if it appears anywhere in the comment, ignoring capital letters. It doesn't fix spelling, so a comment saying "gide" won't match guide. Punctuation and spaces count too: the keyword price? needs the question mark.

Check that the word your caption asks for is in the automation's Keywords, and add common misspellings or the same word in other languages your audience uses. Or switch on Run on every comment. How keywords work has more examples.

4. Is it running on the right post?

• A One post automation only runs on the post you picked. The Runs on column in the Automations list shows which post that is.
• An automation for posts doesn't run on story replies, and the other way round.
• A One story automation stops being useful when the story expires after 24 hours.

5. Did a different automation win?

Only one automation of each type runs on a comment. If you have several, CommenSense chooses in this order: this post's keyword match, then this post's "every comment" automation, then an All posts keyword match, then an All posts "every comment" automation. Among equals, the most recently edited wins.

So an automation for one post always beats an All posts one, and a keyword match beats a catch-all. If the "wrong" automation replied, this is why. Switch the other one off, or make their keywords different.

6. Did they finish the extra steps?

If you turned on anything on the Advanced step, your DM waits for the person:

If people say they never got the DM, these are the first things to check. The simplest flows, with none of these on, are the most reliable.

7. Is the DM in their message requests?

If the person doesn't follow you, Instagram puts the first message in their message requests, not their main inbox (Meta's documentation). Many people never look there. Mention it in your caption: "check your message requests".

Instagram can also refuse to deliver a message, for example because of the person's own message settings. CommenSense can't override that.

8. Did the public reply stop but the DM still go out?

Reply limit per post caps how many public replies CommenSense posts on one post. Once it's reached, people still get the DM, but no reply appears under their comment. Raise the limit in the automation's Content step if you need more. The public reply is also only posted after your first message reaches them, so if that message failed, there's no reply either.

9. Is your Instagram connection working?

• Home shows a Needs your attention box when something is wrong. "@username needs reconnecting" means CommenSense can't act for that account until you reconnect it. Select Reconnect; your automations and settings are kept.
• To test the connection yourself, open My account, then Settings, and select Re-check under the account. See how to connect Instagram.
• Paused accounts don't run anything. If your plan's account limit dropped, extra accounts are paused (their data is kept). Home says "@username is paused", and you can resume it from Settings when your plan has room.

10. Was it just slow?

Instagram limits how quickly apps can send messages, so CommenSense queues DMs and sends them at a steady pace. On a busy post, some arrive a few minutes after the comment. If Instagram tells CommenSense to slow down, sending for that account pauses for a while (15 minutes or more) and then carries on.

Occasionally CommenSense itself pauses sending, for example during an Instagram outage. You'll get a notification saying "Sending to Instagram is paused", and another when it resumes.

Still stuck?

CommenSense doesn't yet show a log of what happened to each individual comment, so if none of the above explains it, email [email protected] with:

• the automation's name,
• a link to the post,
• the commenter's username and roughly when they commented,
• what you expected to happen and what happened instead.

That's enough for us to find the comment and tell you exactly why it was skipped.