Once you have built an automation you can keep your work as a draft, publish it, or do both at once. Saving does not publish: an automation that is already live keeps running the version you last published while you edit a draft alongside it, and your changes only take effect when you publish them. The canvas offers Publish changes, Save without publishing, Unpublish and Discard and close. Which of these appear depends on the state of the automation — whether it has ever been published, and whether it has unsaved edits. This guide also covers how automated emails are logged on the recipient's profile.
Save without publishing
- Save without publishing stores your work without changing what is live.
- A draft that has never been published is not running — nothing happens when the trigger event occurs. If the automation has been published before, the version you last published keeps running while your draft sits unpublished.
- Use it while you are still building or testing, or when you want to come back later.
- An automation that has never been published appears in the Automations list with a Draft status. One that is already live stays On even when it has an unpublished draft, because the list reflects what is running rather than what you have saved.
Publish
- Publish changes makes the automation live.
- A published automation runs automatically every time its trigger fires.
- A published automation appears in the Automations list with an On status.
- To stop a published automation without deleting it, use Unpublish from its overflow menu — this sets it to Off / Unpublished and keeps the configuration.
When publishing fails
Publishing can fail (or the status can show an error) when the automation references something invalid. A failed publication leaves the previously published version running, so a broken change cannot take your live automation down. The most common causes are:
- A custom field referenced in a trigger or action was deleted or changed.
- A form question was altered after the automation was built.
- An email template was cloned without adjusting its merge field values.
If publish fails, review every trigger and action and check the merge field values used in each email and text message. See the limitations and best practice guide.
Activity logging on the Insights tab
- When an automation sends an email, that send is recorded as an email line item on the recipient's profile under the Insights tab.
- This lets you confirm an automated email was actually sent and reached the contact.
- Check a contact's Insights tab to verify that an automation ran for them.
The four canvas actions at a glance
Which of these the automation canvas offers depends on its state — whether it has ever been published, and whether it has unsaved edits.
- Publish changes — deploys the draft you have saved so it becomes the version that runs. This is the only action that changes what is live.
- Save without publishing — stores your work and leaves the running version exactly as it is. Use it to stop for the day part-way through a change to a live automation.
- Unpublish — takes the automation out of service. It stops running, and the list shows it as Off / Unpublished. Your work is kept, so you can publish it again later.
- Discard and close — throws away the edits you have made since your last save and closes the canvas. The saved draft and the published version are both left alone, so this undoes your current session's work rather than the automation.