Updated Oct 2026

Fix a post that didn’t publish

Sometimes PostSignOff tries to publish an approved post and it doesn’t go through. Then that platform version’s status changes to Failed. This page shows where to find failed posts, what their messages mean, and how to fix and retry them.

Where you see a failure

Posts page: the row shows a red badge with a short reason, for example “Instagram needs reconnecting”. Point at the badge to read the full sentence. If reconnecting will fix it, a Check connections link sits next to the badge.
History page: set the Status filter to Failed to list every failed post. Each row shows the reason under the post’s text.
Post outcome drawer: select a failed row on the History page to open the drawer. Its Failure section shows the reason and a Retry button.
The post’s page: the list of problems at the top says “Publishing failed” and how long ago. Under that is the error the platform sent back. Next to it is a Retry or Connect button.

What the messages mean

The badge on the Posts page is short. The History page, the drawer, and the badge’s hover text use the full sentence. {Platform} is the platform’s name, like Instagram.

Badge	Full sentence	What to do
“{Platform} needs reconnecting”	“{Platform} needs to be reconnected before this can publish.”	Reconnect the account, then retry.
“{Platform} rejected this post”	“{Platform} rejected this post.”	Open the post and fix what the platform didn’t like. Then retry.
“Temporary error”	“A temporary connection problem stopped this post. Try again.”	Retry.
“Rate-limited — will retry”	“{Platform} is rate-limiting us — we’ll retry automatically.”	On a failed post, the automatic tries are over. Retry it.
“Problem on our side”	“Something went wrong on our side — this isn’t a problem with your {Platform} account.”	Retry later. If it keeps failing, contact support.
“Publishing failed”	“Publishing to {Platform} failed.”	This shows on older posts. Retry.

Retry a failed post

Fix the cause first. See the causes below. If you retry without a fix, it usually fails the same way.
Retry it from where you found it:
- Posts page: select the ↻ icon in the row’s buttons, next to Approve and Reject. It only works when a platform version has failed. It retries every failed platform version of that post.
- History page: select Retry right in the row. Or open the row and select Retry in the drawer’s Failure section.
- The post’s page: select Retry failed in the row of buttons at the top. Or select Retry under one platform’s editor. A Retry publishing? window opens. For one platform, it also shows the last error. Select Retry publish.
On the Posts page you see Retrying failed posts. On the History page you see Publishing now. The post tries to publish again right away.

Retry on the Posts page and the History page doesn’t ask first. It goes live as soon as you select it.

Common causes and fixes

Your connection expired or was removed

The platform stopped accepting PostSignOff’s access to your account. This can happen when the connection expires. It can also happen when you change your password on the platform, or remove PostSignOff’s access there. The badge reads “{Platform} needs reconnecting”. Reconnect the account, then retry the post. See Connect your social accounts.

No account connected for that platform

The post was approved for a platform your brand has no connected account for. The badge reads “{Platform} needs reconnecting”. On the post’s page, the error reads:

“No connected {platform} account for this brand”

Connect the account, then retry. See Connect your social accounts.

The media doesn’t meet the platform’s rules

Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest need an image or video. YouTube needs a video. Approval already checks this, so it’s rare at publish time. But PostSignOff checks the media again just before it publishes. If something changed, the post fails with “{Platform} rejected this post”. Open the post, fix the media for that platform version, then retry. See Platform limits and requirements.

An X post is too long for the account

An X post can fail with this message:

“This post is {count} characters — over the 280-character limit for a Standard X account. Shorten it, or upgrade the X account to Premium and update its tier under Settings → Connections.”

Shorten the post. Or, if your X account has Premium, change its tier on the Connections page. Then retry.

Facebook or LinkedIn permission problem

On Facebook, the connected account has to be an admin of the Page it publishes to. On LinkedIn, it has to be an admin of the organization. If someone removed your admin access after you connected, publishing fails. Reconnect the account and pick the Page or organization again. Or ask an admin to give your access back. Then retry.

Reddit posts go to your own profile

There’s no option to pick a subreddit. A Reddit post goes to your own Reddit profile. This isn’t a failure to fix. It’s how Reddit publishing works today.

TikTok and PNG images

TikTok may turn down PNG images in photo posts. If a TikTok post with a PNG fails, swap in a JPEG or WEBP image and retry.

Automatic retries

Short outages: a platform may be briefly down, or may limit how fast we can post. Then the post doesn’t fail right away. It stays Approved, and the Posts page notes that the last try failed.
Scheduled posts: PostSignOff tries again on its own for about 2 hours after the scheduled time. If it still hasn’t gone out by then, it moves to Failed and needs a manual retry.
Post Now: a post with no scheduled time also stays Approved after a short outage. Sometimes the platform finishes the post anyway, and it moves to Posted a little later. If it doesn’t, PostSignOff won’t try again on its own. Select Post Now, or Publish now on the post’s page, again.
An expired connection, a media problem, or a permission problem is never retried on its own. Fix the cause first.

Approved posts moved back to Pending

When you disconnect or remove a social account, the dialog can move that platform’s approved posts back to Needs approval. That’s the choice it picks for you, “Move {Platform} posts to Needs approval (recommended)”. Those posts get a note like this:

“Moved to Pending — {Platform} was disconnected (Jul 16, 2026)”

The same thing happens when a trial or subscription ends and your accounts are released. Then the note says why.

Reconnect the account, then approve the post again from the Posts page. See Review and approve your posts.

If something goes wrong

“Publishing is turned off in this environment — approved posts stay in the queue for manual posting.” Publishing to real platforms is off for this environment. Retry uses the same publish step as Post Now, so you can see this from Retry too. Retrying won’t work until an administrator turns publishing back on. You might see a longer version of this message that mentions PUBLISH_EXTERNAL_ENABLED. It means the same thing. That wording comes from the server, on the post’s page and the History page.