Turn on, edit, pause and delete an automation

Turning it on

The button at the top right says Turn on. Before it works, Drry checks the automation is complete: the trigger has what it needs (a course, a lesson, a list, an event), every email step has an email with something in it, tag and list steps have a tag or list picked, a jump points at a step, every condition has its target, and an event the journey is built around is published. A step that opens an offer must still be able to open it. If something is missing, Drry tells you which.

Turning it on stamps a starting line at that moment. For most triggers only people who qualify after it are picked up, and nobody who qualified earlier is back-filled. The event triggers and the Include people already on the list switch are the exceptions. See How automations work.

Editing a live automation

You can change an automation while it is on. People who are already part-way through finish on the version they started, so new steps reach only people who enter after you save. The panel says as much when you save.

A few things reach further than that:

• The goal. A goal set under Stop at a goal applies to people who are part-way through right now.

• The event. Swapping or moving the event re-times everyone still waiting on it.

• The words of an email. A step points at an email rather than holding it, so editing that email changes what anyone who has not yet received it will get.

• Including people already on the list. It enrols everyone already on the list at once, and switching the automation off afterwards does not undo it.

What a live automation will not let you change

Some edits would start the automation for people it was never meant to reach. While it is on, Drry refuses them and saves nothing.

• Who a list or lead automation is aimed at. On Joined a list or Signed up, didn’t join, you cannot switch to it from another trigger, or change its list or its Where they came from filter. The message reads “This journey is live, so changing who it is aimed at would start it for everyone added to that list since it first went live, not just from now” (for a lead automation, “everyone who signed in without joining”). It goes on: “Turn the automation off, make the change, then turn it back on to start the new audience from today, or duplicate it and change the trigger on the copy.”

• Which form starts a form automation. Turn it off before changing which form starts it.

• What it is built around. Moving between no event, one event and a repeating series is refused: turn it off before changing what it is built around. Swapping one event for another is allowed.

Everything else still works while it is on: the steps, the emails, the delays and the goal. So does switching Include people already on the list on or off, and so does moving an automation away from one of those two triggers. If you land on Joined a list with Include people already on the list switched on, Drry shows how many people that enrols before you save.

Turning it off

The same button now says Turn off, and it sends the automation back to a draft. Nobody new enters. Everyone already in it freezes where they are and carries on when you turn it back on. An event-timed email that is by then too late is skipped rather than sent late.

Turning it back on moves the starting line to that moment, so people who qualified while it was off are not picked up and the gap is not replayed.

If the journey opened an offer, turning it off closes that offer link for good, and turning it on again does not reopen it. Turning off a journey with an open offer needs an owner or admin.

If your plan drops below Creator, Drry turns your live automations off for you. They are not lost. Turning one back on starts from that moment.

Duplicate and delete

On the Automations tab, the menu on each row has Turn on or Turn off, Duplicate and Delete.

• Duplicate makes a draft with "(copy)" added to the name. It makes its own copies of the emails too, so editing the copy does not change the original's. For an event journey it says "Copied. Swap the event and turn it on."

• Delete asks first: "This stops the journey and removes everyone currently in it, and closes any offer link it opened. This cannot be undone."