Channel troubleshooting
Four situations cover almost every broken channel, plus how to tell a real failure from a temporary glitch.
Real failure versus temporary glitch
These two messages look alike but call for opposite responses. Reading one as the other means removing a healthy channel and having its slot held for 7 days.
| Message | What it really is | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The platform revoked access | A real failure. The platform cancelled the authorisation and will not reissue it without a sign-in. | Press Reconnect and authorise again. |
| Could not reach the platform | A temporary network problem. The authorisation is intact and the channel is fine. | Wait a few minutes and retry. Do not remove the channel. |
Do not remove a channel while unsure
Disconnecting does not return the slot right away: it is held for 7 days and then frees up. Remove a channel that was only having a network hiccup and you must reconnect it within those 7 days to avoid spending another slot — reconnecting that same channel takes its old place back.
Four common situations
| Situation | Usual cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| A YouTube channel dies after exactly 7 days | The Google Cloud app is still in Testing mode. | Press Publish app in Google Cloud, then reconnect — see the YouTube guide. |
| A Zalo channel is permanently "Expiring" | Zalo tokens live one hour and are renewed continuously. | This is the normal state. Only act if it becomes "Revoked". |
| A post reports success but is not on the channel | The platform is reviewing it, or the content is under a visibility restriction. | Check directly in the platform's app. We know the platform accepted the post; we cannot know whether it chose to show it. |
| A "Comment permission missing" badge | A permission was deselected during authorisation. | Press Re-authorise and approve everything. No disconnect is needed, so no slot is spent. |
Refresh, re-authorise or reconnect
These buttons look similar but do three different things. Work from the lightest to the heaviest.
| Button | What it does | Costs a slot? |
|---|---|---|
| Refresh token | Asks the platform to extend the existing authorisation. No sign-in needed. | No |
| Re-authorise | Signs in again to grant additional permissions to the same channel — use it when the comment scope is missing. | No |
| Reconnect | Reissues authorisation for a channel whose access was revoked. | No, as long as the channel is still in the list |
| Disconnect then add again | Deletes the channel entirely and connects it from scratch. | No, if you reconnect that same channel within 7 days. A different channel takes one more slot until the hold ends |
If several channels break at once, tick them in the table and use the bulk Refresh token button. The result reports successes and failures separately.
Before you press disconnect
Run through this list first — there is nearly always a lighter option:
- Is the message "Could not reach the platform"? Then wait.
- Have you tried Refresh token?
- Have you tried Reconnect? It costs no slot.
- On YouTube: have you pressed Publish app in Google Cloud? Without it the channel dies after 7 days no matter how often you reconnect.
- On Zalo: is the Zalo service plan still active? An expired plan fails every post while the channel still looks healthy.
What if you genuinely no longer need the channel?
Then disconnecting is the right move — just remember the slot frees up after 7 days. If you need to swap one channel for another and do not want to wait out the 7 days, contact support to have the slot released early.