Sequence Does Not Stop or Pause as Expected

Purpose

Sometimes contacts continue receiving emails after they've replied, or a sequence pauses contacts that shouldn't be paused. This article covers the specific rules that control sequence stopping and pausing, so you can diagnose unexpected behavior.

How Sequences Normally Stop

In SuperSend, there are several ways a contact's progression through a sequence stops:

1. Contact replies — by default, when a contact replies to any step, SuperSend marks them as Replied and stops the sequence for them. They won't receive further steps.
2. Contact opts out — when a contact clicks the unsubscribe link, they're marked Opted Out and all future sends stop permanently.
3. Contact reaches the last step — when there are no more steps, the contact is marked Completed.
4. Contact is manually paused or removed — you can do this from the campaign's Contacts tab.
5. A "Move To Another Campaign" step is reached — moves the contact to the specified campaign and removes them from the current one.

Issue: Contacts Continue Receiving Emails After Replying

If a contact replied but is still moving through the sequence, check these things:

Did the reply actually come through the connected mailbox?

The reply needs to be received by the mailbox SuperSend is monitoring via IMAP. If the reply went to a different address (e.g., a forwarding alias, or the contact replied to a different thread), SuperSend may not have detected it.

Check the campaign's Events tab and search for that contact. Look for a "Reply received" event. If it's not there, the reply wasn't captured.

Common causes of missed replies:

• The sending mailbox uses a different reply-to address than the IMAP-monitored address.
• API-based senders (Mailgun, SendGrid, SES) don't support IMAP reply monitoring by default — replies must be routed back via a webhook or a separate inbox.
• The contact replied to the wrong thread (not the campaign email).

Is "reply stops sequence" enabled?

Go to Campaign Settings → Opt Outs tab. Confirm the opt-out and reply behavior settings are configured correctly.

Is the sequence a complex sequence with conditional logic?

In complex sequences, the "stop on reply" behavior may not apply to all branches automatically. Check the specific path the contact is on and whether it has a stop node or conditional triggered by reply events.

Issue: Contacts Are Paused When They Shouldn't Be

Cause: LinkedIn step failure with "Pause On LinkedIn Failure" enabled

Go to Campaign Settings → Sending Rules → Pause On LinkedIn Failure.

If this is set to Yes and any LinkedIn step fails (expired session, rate limit, missing LinkedIn account in the profile), SuperSend pauses the contact at that step. If many contacts are affected simultaneously, it may look like the whole campaign stopped.

Fix: Re-authenticate the LinkedIn account in the sender profile (see Connect LinkedIn Account), then check the Events tab for each affected contact and manually resume them if needed.

Cause: "Pause the contact if the step fails" sequence failure setting

Go to Campaign Settings → Campaign tab → Sequence Step Failures dropdown.

Options:

• Skip step for the contact if the step fails (contact moves on)
• Pause the contact if the step fails ← contacts get stuck here
• Pause the campaign and send a notification

If this is set to "Pause the contact," any step failure (SMTP error, invalid variable, LinkedIn error) silently pauses that contact. Check the Events tab for each paused contact to see which step failed and why.

Fix: Resolve the underlying error for that step, then manually resume the affected contacts from the campaign's Contacts tab.

Issue: Contacts Complete the Sequence Too Early

Cause: "Move To Another Campaign" step

Check if your sequence has a Move To Another Campaign step. If conditions route contacts to this step before the end of the sequence, they'll exit early.

In a complex sequence, check all branch paths to confirm no unintended "Move" node is positioned too early.

Cause: A stop node in a complex sequence

In complex sequences, a Stop node ends the contact's sequence. If a conditional branch routes contacts to a Stop node unexpectedly, contacts exit the sequence early.

Check the canvas for all Stop nodes and verify the conditions that lead to them.

Issue: "Only Send Follow Ups" Stops New Contacts From Getting Step 1

Go to Campaign Settings → Sending Rules → Only Send Follow Ups.

If this is set to Yes, contacts that enter the sequence will skip step 1 and only receive steps they're already positioned at. New contacts added to the campaign won't receive their first email.

This is almost always an accidental setting. Turn it off unless you specifically want this behavior.

Diagnosing via the Events Feed

For any sequence behavior that's unexpected, the Events tab in the campaign is your primary debugging tool. Every step send, reply received, opt-out, pause, and error is logged there with a timestamp and contact identifier.

To investigate a specific contact:

1. Go to the campaign → Events tab.
2. Search by email address or filter to that contact.
3. Review the event history chronologically — you'll see exactly what happened and when.

Common event types to look for:

• email_send — step was sent
• email_reply — a reply was detected
• step_failed — a step errored
• contact_paused — contact was paused (and why)
• opt_out — contact unsubscribed

Expected Result

You identify the specific setting or event causing unexpected sequence behavior and can correct it, resuming affected contacts where appropriate.

Related Articles

• Edit Sequence Steps
• Campaign Not Sending Checklist
• Work Conversations in Super Inbox

Updated on: 17/03/2026