Pausing workflows

Pause or stop a Loops workflow to control email sending, manage timers in paused workflows, and resume or end automations safely.

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Pausing vs Stopping

Both pausing and stopping a workflow will prevent any emails from sending until you resume the workflow, but there are a few key differences.

We generally recommend stopping emails based on in-app actions completed (e.g., “user upgraded,” “ticket closed,” “trial converted”) rather than on email replies as a reply (such as an out of office email) doesn’t necessarily mean the action you emailed about has been taken.

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Pausing a workflow

When you pause a workflow, you can resume the workflow at any time.

During the pause, all contacts that were scheduled to receive an email will receive it once you resume the workflow. However, this assumes that these contacts still meet the necessary criteria to receive the email (e.g., they are subscribed and match any audience filters or other conditions you’ve set).

New contacts that match the Trigger conditions while the workflow is paused will enter the workflow but only within the first 24 hours. Contacts that qualify for the Trigger after the 24-hour mark will not enter the workflow.

We will notify you via email once the 24-hour period has elapsed, reminding you that contacts will no longer queue to enter the workflow if you resume it.

The 24-hour limitation prevents contacts from entering a workflow that has been paused for an extended period and receiving irrelevant emails. For instance, if your workflow sends a welcome email to new contacts, you wouldn’t want a contact to join the workflow three months after signing up and receive a welcome email.

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Timers in paused workflows

Contacts waiting on a timer node keep their original scheduled send time when you pause a workflow. If you resume before that time passes, the email sends at the originally scheduled time.

If the workflow is still paused when a contact’s scheduled send time passes, they will receive the email shortly after you resume the workflow.

If you want to update the time for all queued contacts on a timer (A), you can create a new timer (B) after it and then delete the old timer (A), moving contacts to the new timer (B).

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Stopping a workflow

Stopping a workflow will not queue any new contacts to enter the workflow. Any contacts that were queued to enter the workflow will not enter the workflow. That’s the key difference between pausing and stopping a workflow.