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Troubleshooting

Organized by symptom: what probably happened, and exactly where to look — from silent triggers to missing DMs.

Updated Sep 19, 2026
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“My flow didn’t fire”

Someone commented or messaged, and nothing happened. Start with these checks:

  • The flow isn’t published — drafts never run from live events, and edits to a published flow don’t go live until you publish again. Check the status pill in the flow editor.
  • The trigger is paused — pausing is easy to forget, and triggers pause automatically when their account disconnects. Check the trigger card at Automations → Triggers.
  • The keyword didn’t match — matching ignores case. Exact looks for the complete keyword within the message, so GUIDE matches “GUIDE please!” but not GUIDES. Contains also matches text inside a longer word.
  • A frequency guard did its job — once per post per person is on by default; repeat commenters are skipped deliberately. The trigger card’s “skipped” counter counts these: matched, but didn’t run.
  • The contact opted out — check for DM opt-out in the Inbox. The person can send START to opt back in; do not resume automation unless they request it.
  • The account has a connection problem — a warning status on the Accounts page pauses everything that depends on it.

“The flow ran, but the DM never arrived”

When a run starts but a message doesn’t land, the run itself tells you why. Open the flow’s Runs page and read the failure reason — the usual suspects:

  • 24-hour window expired — apart from the opening DM of a comment-triggered flow (which Ravela sends as a private reply to the comment), Instagram only allows automated messages within 24 hours of the contact’s last message. Check the run’s reason and any configured Not sent path. A delay does not extend the window.
  • Opening comment message unsupported — a cold-comment flow must begin with text, optionally with quick replies. Move media, carousels, URL buttons, checkout and delivery steps after the commenter responds and opens the 24-hour window.
  • Private-reply allowance unavailable — a post or reel comment can receive one private reply within seven days. Live-comment replies must happen during the broadcast. A used or expired allowance blocks another opening reply.
  • Sending is delayed or rate-limited — messages may wait for capacity. They still need a valid window and account connection when sent; an expired window or exhausted retries can stop delivery.
  • Contact opted out — a STOP arriving mid-conversation ends the run on the spot.
  • Account disconnected — reconnect the account and review paused triggers. Stopped runs do not restart; a new eligible interaction can start a new run once automation is active.

“The public comment reply was skipped”

Usually this is the honesty guard working as designed: Ravela posts the public “check your DMs” reply only after Instagram accepts the outbound send for that exact flow run. If the person opted out, the opening message was unsupported, the allowance expired, or Instagram rejected the send, it stays quiet rather than making a promise after a known failure.

Public replies also have their own pacing and retry limits, so they may arrive later than the DM or stop after retries are exhausted. Check Activity for the recorded outcome.

“My test code didn’t start the flow”

Check the session and the account first:

  • The session expired — test codes live for one hour. Start a fresh test.
  • The draft wasn’t saved — the test runs the latest saved draft, not what’s on your screen. Save, then test.
  • You DMed from the wrong side — the code must be sent to your connected account from a different account (your personal one), not from the connected account itself.
  • The test account once sent STOP — opt-outs apply to testers too. Send START from that account first.
  • It’s a raffle flow — raffles are tested from Automations → Raffles, not with a test code.

“My account shows a warning — or vanished”

Two different symptoms, one family of causes. An account showing a warning status on the Accounts page (usually an expired token) keeps its row and offers Reconnect — click it, log in, done. If the account is missing, check Activity and connect again with the same Instagram login. An intentionally disconnected account can also disappear from the list, so a missing row alone does not tell you the cause. Reconnecting does not restart stopped flow runs.

Either way, triggers that paused during the outage stay paused until you reactivate them — check Automations → Triggers after any reconnect. And you often get warning shots before a break: token-renewal warnings appear in the Activity feed and the digest email days ahead.

Where to look, in order

When anything misbehaves, the same five surfaces answer nearly every question:

  1. 1The flow’s Runs page — every run with its status and failure reason; open a run for the step-by-step timeline.
  2. 2The trigger card — active or paused, run and skipped counters, and when it last ran.
  3. 3The Accounts page — connection status, with Reconnect where it’s needed.
  4. 4The Activity feed — the Issues tab collects failures, disconnects, rate limits, and opt-out skips; the All tab includes early warnings too.
  5. 5The activity digest email — a daily or weekly summary that flags account issues you might have missed in-app.