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Troubleshoot

Why was a reply not detected?

Troubleshooting Reviewed · not yet fact-checked

In short

Why was a reply not detected in Reply?

Detection takes up to 3-4 hours and only works when the reply comes from the address you contacted, stays in the main inbox folder for at least 3 hours, the account is properly connected, and the contact is Active or Active plus Contacted — not Finished. Check the sender address and the contact's status first.

Symptom

A real reply sits in the mailbox, but the contact still shows Active in the sequence and follow-ups keep scheduling. Reply checks the email address specified in the IMAP section of the account connection, so every gap between that monitored path and where the reply actually went — or a status that turns detection off — produces this symptom.

Most likely causes

#CauseRule
1Not enough time has passed — it usually takes up to 3-4 hours for responses to be detected and synced to ReplyReply detection
2The reply was moved out of the main inbox folder — replies must stay in the main inbox folder for at least 3 hours and must not be moved to another folderClient-side rules and filters are a common silent culprit
3The prospect answered from a different address than the one you contacted — matching requires the same email addressA forward counts only if it was forwarded from within the original email and contains the prospect's address from your system
4The contact's status excludes detection — contacts must have Active or Active + Contacted statuses; replies detection is not performed for Finished contactsStatuses
5The receiving account is not connected properly (no green dot) — a disconnected mailbox is not checked for repliesWhy was a mailbox disconnected?
6The message was classified as an automatic reply — auto-replies, out-of-office messages, and bounces are handled apart from real replies and by default are not displayed in the Reply inboxReply detection
7Detection worked, but it was a reply to a direct email — the contact gets Replied without Finished and continues in the sequence as plannedBoth statuses are assigned only for replies to sequence emails

Diagnostic checklist

  1. Check the clock first: if the reply arrived less than 3-4 hours ago, wait before intervening.
  2. Compare the reply's From address with the contact's email in Reply — an assistant, alias, or colleague answering breaks the match.
  3. Confirm the reply is still in the main inbox folder and has been there at least 3 hours — undo any rule or filter that auto-filed it.
  4. Open the contact: status must be Active or Active + Contacted. A Finished contact gets no reply detection.
  5. Check the green dot on the receiving email account — the address in the IMAP section is the one Reply checks.
  6. If follow-ups continued after a detected reply, check what was answered: a reply to a direct email sets Replied but not Finished, so the sequence continues by design.

Resolution

For a mismatched sender or an already-Finished contact, set the Replied status manually (possible once the contact has received at least one email in the sequence) and continue the conversation from the thread — see Process replies. For a moved reply, return it to the main inbox folder and leave it there. For a disconnected account, reconnect it and then reconcile replies that arrived during the outage. If auto-replies are invisible and you want to see them, change the Reply inbox handling in Settings, Emails, Email Safety from Do not display to Display or Display & mark as read — displayed auto-replies are still not treated as real replies.

Verification

The contact's status shows Replied (and Finished, for a reply to a sequence email), the thread is visible in the inbox, and no further follow-ups schedule under the default replies handling. Reply-rate statistics recover as the statuses are corrected — see Statistics calculation.

Prevention

Keep client-side rules from touching fresh replies for at least 3 hours; keep receiving accounts connected; and prefer contacting the address a person actually replies from. Note that emails sent and received outside Reply are also synced into the contact's activity — provided the contact has already received at least one email from your Reply account, with a 20-day detection window after the last email touch from Reply — so the activity log is a good place to spot conversations detection missed.

FAQ

The prospect replied from a colleague's address — will Reply catch it?

No. Matching requires the reply to come from the same email address you contacted, or to be forwarded from within the original email with the prospect's address included. Mark the contact as Replied manually and answer from the thread. See Reply detection.

Follow-ups kept sending after the prospect answered my one-off email — bug?

No. A reply to a direct email assigns the Replied status but not Finished — both statuses are assigned only when the reply is to a sequence email. The contact therefore continues in the sequence as planned. Stop them manually if that is not what you want.

Where did the out-of-office and auto-replies go?

By default, auto-replies, out-of-office messages, and bounced emails are not displayed in the Reply inbox. Change the handling in Settings, Emails, Email Safety to Display or Display & mark as read — they will appear in the inbox and contact card but are not treated as real replies.

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