Updated Oct 2026

Post statuses explained

Every post has a status. The status tells you where the post is in its life. This page explains each one in plain words. It also tells you what you can do next.

The big picture

A post usually moves through three steps:

You create it. It starts in Needs approval.
You approve it. Now it’s Approved.
It publishes. Now it’s Posted.

A post can also take a side path:

Rejected means you said no to it.
Expired means it missed its time before it could go out.
Failed means it tried to publish and didn’t make it.

None of these side paths are the end. You can bring all three back.

Statuses at a glance

Status	What it means	Where you see it
Needs approval	Waiting for your yes or no. It can’t publish.	Posts page
Approved	You said yes. It waits for its time to go out.	Posts page
Posted	It published. The words are locked for good.	Posts page and History
Rejected	You said no. It’s kept, not deleted.	Posts page and History
Expired	It missed its time, so it didn’t go out.	Posts page and History
Failed	It tried to publish, and the platform said no.	Posts page and History

The Status filter on the Posts page can show any of these. The page opens on Needs approval. The History page shows only the last four.

Needs approval

A new post always starts here. It doesn’t matter if AI wrote it or you wrote it yourself. Some messages in the app call this status pending. A post here never publishes on its own, no matter how long it sits.

There’s no time limit. A post can wait here as long as you like. It only expires in two cases:

It has a scheduled time, and that time comes before you approve it.
It’s in a campaign, and a plan change pushes its slot past how far ahead your plan can schedule.

A post can also come back here. That happens when you edit it after you approved it, or when you disconnect its account and choose to move its posts.

What you can do: edit it, Approve it, or Reject it. If your brand uses compliance review, the post may need a passing or acknowledged check first. See Review and approve your posts.

Approved

Approved means you said yes. The post doesn’t go out the moment you approve it. It goes out at its scheduled time. Or it goes out right away, if you select Post Now on the Posts page or Publish now on the post’s page.

Good to know: you can still edit an approved post. But if you change its text, hashtags or sign-off, it goes back to Needs approval. You’ll see “This post went back to Needs approval because it was edited after approval. Approve it again to publish.” Approve it again so it can go out.

Needs scheduling and Scheduled

An approved post isn’t always headed anywhere yet. So the Posts page has two narrower filters next to Approved:

Needs scheduling: you approved it, but it has no date and time yet. It sits here until you give it one.
Scheduled: you approved it, and it has a time coming up. It goes out then.

Both kinds are Approved posts. The split shows you which ones still need something from you. Pick Approved to see them all together.

The filters are the same on every screen size. On a phone they’re a row of chips. On a wider screen they’re in the Status filter list.

A plan change can move a post into Needs scheduling. Say your new plan can’t schedule as far ahead. A post with a time past the new limit loses its time, but it keeps its status. An approved post stays approved. Give it a new time that fits your plan.

Posted

Posted means the post published. This is the one status you can never change. The words are kept exactly as they went out. You can’t edit them. The editor turns read-only and shows “Posted content is locked — the published record can’t be edited.”

You can’t delete a published post either. It’s a permanent record.

What you can do: open it on the History page. There you can see the published text, a View live link, when it was approved, and when it went out.

Rejected

Rejected means you said no. The post isn’t deleted. It stays on the Posts page under the Rejected filter, and on the History page.

What you can do: select Reactivate to send it back to Needs approval for another look. See Reactivate an expired or rejected post.

Expired

Expired means the post missed its time before it could go out. There are two ways that happens:

It missed its scheduled time. The time came, and the post still wasn’t approved. So it expired instead of going out late. The post’s page shows “It missed its slot before approval. Reactivate it to try again.”
A plan change cut off its campaign slot. This only happens to posts in a campaign. If your new plan can’t schedule that far ahead, the post expires, even if it was approved. Its note starts with “Expired — after” and names the last day your plan can schedule.

A post never expires just for sitting in Needs approval with no time.

What you can do: select Reactivate to send it back to Needs approval. If its old time has passed, the time is cleared. Then set a new time, or approve it and publish it right away. Any of its images that were archived while it sat come back on their own.

Failed

Failed means an approved post tried to publish and didn’t make it. The reason is saved on the post. Common causes: the account needs reconnecting, no account is connected for that platform, or the platform turned the post down.

Small hiccups don’t always mean failure. Say publishing hits a short problem, like a rate limit. The post stays Approved. A scheduled post keeps retrying for about 2 hours. Only then is it marked Failed. After Post Now, the post may still go live a little later. If it doesn’t, select Post Now again.

What you can do: fix the cause, then select Retry to publish again. See Fix a post that didn’t publish.

If you disconnect an account

When you disconnect or remove an account that has approved posts, the app asks what to do with them. The first choice is picked for you. It moves them back to Needs approval, so they can’t fail later. The other choice, Leave them scheduled, keeps them approved. But they’ll fail at their time unless you reconnect the account first.

When a trial or subscription ends, your accounts are let go. Their approved posts move back to Needs approval on their own.

Each moved post gets a short note saying why. Approve them again after you reconnect.

Deleting a post

There’s no Archive for posts anymore. To put a post away for good, delete it.

Open the post and select the More actions menu (⋯).
Select Delete.
Confirm. The message says “Delete this post? You can restore it from the trash for 30 days.”

The post moves to the Trash tab on the Posts page. To bring it back, open that tab, select the row’s ⋯ menu, and choose Restore.

After 30 days, the post’s text is erased for good. The same happens right away if you select Empty trash. A bare record of the post stays behind. You can’t delete a post that has published. You also can’t delete a post that’s part of a campaign.

Who can edit what

Needs approval: you can edit everything.
Approved: you can edit everything. Changing the text, hashtags or sign-off sends it back to Needs approval.
Rejected, Expired and Failed: you can still edit the text. The status stays the same until you reactivate or retry it.
Posted: locked. No edits, ever.