How to bulk update or schedule flow statuses
You will learn
Learn how to change the statuses of multiple actions in a flow simultaneously in the flow builder. This makes it simple to, for example, set an entire flow live in 1 click or pause all activity quickly by switching actions to manual or draft.
There are 2 options when updating flow statuses:
- Update flow statuses immediately.
- Schedule flow statuses to update at a specific date and time.
There are several reasons to schedule flow statuses to update at a specific date and time instead of immediately. Examples include:
- Setting a flow live for a promotional event that should switch to draft after the event ends.
- Deprecating an old flow and replacing it with a new one at a specific time.
- Temporarily setting a flow to manual while your store undergoes maintenance.
You can also schedule multiple status changes across different dates and times if needed.
Flow status scheduling is not available for date-property triggered flows.
Understand how bulk status changes affect a flow
Before changing the status of a flow’s existing actions, understand what each status means when applied in bulk.
- All statuses are Live
The flow is fully live and messages will be sent immediately after any time delays. - All statuses are Draft
No one will enter the flow. - All statuses are Manual
All messages and other actions require approval before sending. Profiles will be scheduled in the action’s Needs Review queue before manual approval. They will move through the flow as normal with respect to time delays, but the messages won’t send until approved. Learn more about how to manually send flow messages to recipients.
If you are on the free email and profiles plan and are over your profile limit, you cannot send emails (or set flow emails live) until you are under your active profile limit.
For more information, learn more about the timeline of a flow.
Update flow statuses immediately
To update all flow action statuses immediately:
- Open the flow you want to update in the flow builder.
- Click Review and turn on or Update Status in the top right corner.
- From the dropdown, choose the new status for all existing actions: either Draft, Manual, or Live.
- Select Update status now.
- Click Save.
Schedule flow statuses to update
To schedule a bulk status update:
- Open the flow you want to update in the flow builder.
- Click Update Status or Review and turn on in the top right corner.
- From the dropdown, choose the new status for all existing actions: either Draft, Manual, or Live.
- Select Schedule.
- Choose a date, time, and timezone.
- Click Save.
The panel will display an overview of the scheduled status changes. From here you can edit, delete, or add more status changes.
Edit or delete a status change
To edit or delete and existing status change:
- Click Update Status in the flow builder.
- In the Update status panel, click the action button (3 dots) next to the status change.
- Choose Edit to modify details or Delete to remove the status change.
Add another status change
To add another status change to the schedule:
- Click Add status change.
- Choose a status from the dropdown that differs from the previous one.
- Click Save.
You can now view the updated status schedule in the Update status panel.
How to see upcoming status changes
Navigate back to the Flows tab to see any flows with upcoming status changes listed underneath the flow’s current status.
How to review past status changes
To review past status changes:
- In the top bar, click the View flow history icon.
Learn more about reviewing a flow's history.
Outcome
You now understand how to change the statuses of flow actions in bulk, either immediately or by scheduling future changes. This allows you to change when subscribers enter flows.
Additional resources
- Understanding the timing of a flow
Learn how the timing of a flow is not only important to knowing when a certain message will send, but also to gaining insight into the customer's experience. As you build out your flow, you will want to keep two different timing considerations top-of-mind:
- Understanding the absolute flow timeline and rejoining splits
Learn why the timeline may not appear when there is a rejoined split through an example.
- How to add past profiles to a flow
Learn how to add past profiles to a flow, which allows you to retroactively add qualified recipients into a flow that would’ve triggered the flow before it was set to live or manual. This process is formerly known as back-population.