Why a prospect stopped receiving follow-ups
Follow-ups stop when someone replies, unsubscribes, bounces or is blocked, or when a step's trigger doesn't match. Find the reason and what you can do about it.
A prospect stops getting follow-ups when Distro has a reason to stop: they replied, asked to be removed, their address bounced, you blocked them, or a follow-up's trigger didn't apply to them. Each reason shows up as a status next to the person in the campaign.
If follow-ups stopped for everyone in a campaign, the cause is usually the campaign or the mailbox, not the person. See Follow-ups are not sending.
Find the reason
- Go to Outreach → Campaigns and open the Email campaign.
- Scroll to Recipients ("Where each person is in the sequence").
- Find the person and read their status.
| Status | What it means | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Replied | They wrote back, so the sequence stopped for them | Answer them from the Inbox |
| Unsubscribed | They used the unsubscribe link, or replied asking to be removed | Nothing. They are on your Unsubscribed list |
| Bounced | A permanent delivery failure came back | Check the address. It is on your Unsubscribed list |
| Blocked | The address or its domain is on your Unsubscribed list | Leave it, unless they asked to hear from you again |
| Excluded | The person was skipped, for example because an email needed a personalization field they don't have | Fill in the missing details for future campaigns |
| Finished | They received every step that applied to them | Nothing. The sequence is complete |
| Paused | The campaign is paused | Resume the campaign |
| Cancelled | The campaign was ended | Start a new campaign if needed |
| Failed | Sending to this person failed and won't be retried | Check the sender on the Sending accounts page |
In an Email + LinkedIn campaign, open the campaign from the same list and scroll to the people in its results: filter by Stopped or Finished, then click someone to see their timeline. See Email + LinkedIn campaigns.
They replied
When a person replies, Distro stops that campaign's follow-ups for them. This is deliberate: nobody wants "just bumping this" after they already answered. The details, including the If replied and No matter what exceptions, are in How stop-on-reply works.
Only replies written by a person count. An out-of-office or other automatic reply does not stop follow-ups. See How Distro detects replies.
They unsubscribed or bounced
These stop more than one campaign. An unsubscribe (link click or a clear "remove me" reply) and a hard bounce stop every active campaign for that person and add the address to your Unsubscribed list. If the person is also in an Email + LinkedIn campaign, that campaign stops for them too.
You blocked them
Every email is checked against your Unsubscribed list right before it goes out. If you added the person, or their whole domain, after the campaign started, their next follow-up is not sent and they show as Blocked.
Selecting someone in People and clicking Unsubscribe has the same effect: it adds them to the list.
A step's trigger didn't match
Each follow-up has a trigger, checked when the step comes due:
| Trigger | Sent when… |
|---|---|
| If no reply | They haven't replied |
| If no open | They haven't opened (and haven't replied) |
| If no click | They haven't clicked (and haven't replied) |
| If opened | They opened an earlier email |
| If clicked | They clicked a link |
| If replied | They replied |
| No matter what | Always |
If a trigger isn't met, that step is skipped for this person and they move straight on to the next step. So a prospect can receive fewer emails than the sequence has, and finish early. Open and click triggers only work with tracking on, and opens are counted conservatively, so If opened steps reach fewer people than you might expect.
They were missing a personalization field
Campaigns written with Distro, and Email + LinkedIn campaigns, skip anyone whose email would contain an empty personalization field rather than send "Hi ," with a blank. Those people show as Excluded. Add fallbacks to your variables to avoid this; see Using personalization variables.
Everyone stopped at once
If many people stopped at the same time, look at the campaign or the account:
- The Google account is disconnected. Sending waits until you reconnect it on the Sending accounts page.
- The campaign was paused or ended. Paused Email + LinkedIn campaigns also show under Needs you on the Outreach Overview.
- Your trial ended or the plan is inactive. Scheduled emails are held, not lost, and continue from the same step once the account has a plan.
Can I restart follow-ups for one person?
Distro doesn't restart a stopped sequence for one person, and re-sorting their reply in the Inbox doesn't restart it either. If someone replied and you want to keep the conversation going, answer them directly from the Inbox or Gmail.
If follow-ups kept going after someone replied, see A prospect replied but the sequence continued.
Email us at hello@usedistro.com with what you tried and what you see. Signed in? Help & support in the app has walkthrough videos and a message form.