Help center
Answers for when something in Distinctful is not doing what you expected. If yours is not here, email us and a human will answer.
What each connection state means, and how to fix one that stopped working.
A platform shows a state you do not recognize.
Every platform on the Integrations tab shows one of five states. Available to connect means you have not connected it yet. Connected means it is working. Authorized means access was granted and the first sync has not finished, so give it a moment. Syncing means data is moving right now. Needs action means Distinctful can no longer reach the platform, and it is waiting on you to fix that.
A platform shows Needs action, or a Reconnect button appeared where Connected used to be.
This nearly always means the access you granted has expired, or you revoked it on the platform. Reconnecting restores it. Nothing you have already published or synced is lost while a connection sits in this state.
Almost never, and there is one exception worth knowing about. Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, Beehiiv, Kit, and Stripe all connect through their own sign-in page, so you never type those passwords into Distinctful, and you can cut off access from the platform at any time. Bluesky is the exception, because it does not offer that kind of sign-in. It asks for your handle and an app password, which is a separate password you create inside Bluesky. It is not your Bluesky account password, and you can delete it in Bluesky without changing how you log in.
Choose Disconnect on that platform’s card on the Integrations tab. Syncing and publishing for it stop straight away. If you also want the access removed on the platform’s side, revoke it there as well.
What each publish state means, and what to do when a post does not go out.
A post is sitting in Retrying rather than Published.
No. Retrying means the first attempt did not land, and Distinctful is already having another go on its own. This is the normal response to a platform being briefly slow or unreachable. Leave it be. It moves to Published by itself, or to Failed if the retries run out.
A post is marked Failed and never appeared on the platform.
Failed means the retries ran out, so this is the one publish state that needs you. There are two usual causes: the connection expired partway through, or the platform rejected the post under its own rules, such as a length or media limit. Check the connection first, because that takes seconds to rule out.
Pending means the post is queued to go out now. Scheduled means it is waiting for the time you picked. Publishing means it is being sent this moment. Published means it landed. Cancelled means someone stopped it before it went out, so it is never something Distinctful did on its own.
Where your list numbers come from, and why they can differ from your provider.
The number in Distinctful differs from the number in your newsletter provider.
Your provider is right. Beehiiv and Kit are the source of truth for their own numbers, and Distinctful reads from them instead of counting on its own. A gap usually just means the last sync ran before the change you are looking at, and the two match again after the next sync. If the gap is large, or it is still there after a sync, treat it as a connection problem rather than a counting problem.
The status chip on the newsletter view is a button. Select it to sync straight away, and it reads Syncing while it works. Syncing also happens on its own in the background, so you only need this when you have just changed something at your provider and want to see it now.
What spends a credit, where your balance lives, and what happens at the limit.
You looked on Chief for a credit balance and could not find one.
Your balance lives on the Billing tab in Settings. Chief has no running counter on purpose, because a number ticking down next to the composer changes how people write. Chief shows one quiet line only after you pass 75 percent of your monthly credits, and that line takes you to Billing.
A message to Chief costs 1 credit. When Repurposing turns an edition into social drafts, each provider attempt also costs 1. Everything Chief does in between, like looking something up for you, costs nothing extra, and approving or dismissing what Chief suggests is free.
No. Each paid plan gives you a monthly amount that resets instead of building up. Annual plans top up monthly as well, so paying yearly does not hand you a year of credits on day one.
Trial, upgrades, downgrades, subscriber limits, and where billing is managed.
Everything to do with payment happens in the billing portal, which you open from the Billing tab in Settings. Change plan, update your card, and cancel are all there. If you are still on your trial, Distinctful asks you to confirm before it opens the portal, so nothing is charged without you agreeing to it first.
An upgrade starts right away, and you only pay the difference for the rest of the month. A downgrade starts at the end of your current billing cycle, so you keep what you already paid for until then. Neither one costs you a penalty.
Starter covers up to 10,000 subscribers on one publication. Grow covers up to 25,000 across 2 publications. Scale covers up to 100,000 across 3. When your list grows past your limit, you move up a plan.
You are being asked to pick a plan instead of being offered a trial.
The 7-day trial runs once per account, so once it is used Distinctful asks you to pick a plan rather than offering it again. Nothing you created during the trial is deleted while you decide.
Changing the email you log in with, and deleting your account.
Change it on the Account tab in Settings. Distinctful emails the new address to confirm it, and the change only happens once you follow that link. Until then you keep signing in with your old address, so a typo cannot lock you out.
Deleting is on the Account tab in Settings. You are asked to type DELETE first, because this cannot be undone. If you want your access removed at each platform too, disconnect them before you delete.
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