An approval request did not arrive

An approver expected an email or a Slack message asking for their decision, and it did not come. Start by finding the request in Studio, then work through the causes below in order.

First, find the request in Studio

Select Approvals in the sidebar. If the run is listed there, the request is waiting, and anyone on the approver list can decide it in Studio now. See Approve or reject a request.

If the run is not listed, open Runs and find it on All runs:

• Failed at the approval step: open its error. Delivery may have failed, the request may have been rejected, or it may have timed out. For a delivery error, see The messages could not be delivered.
• Completed or Failed after the approval: someone already decided, or the time ran out. The approval step shows the outcome.
• No run at all: the workflow did not start. See A workflow did not run.

The step has no email or Slack set up

Most likely cause. The approval step has no notification channels, so nobody is notified. The request waits in Studio only.

Fix. Decide this request in Studio. Then open the workflow, select the approval step, and add Email or Slack under Notification channels. Deploy the change. See Add an approval step.

Your address is not on the approver list

Most likely cause. The Approvers list does not contain your address, or contains it with a typo. Open the run and check Approvers on the approval step.

Fix. An owner or admin can decide this request in Studio as an override. Then correct the Approvers list in the workflow and deploy it.

The request was escalated

Most likely cause. The first approvers did not decide in time, and the request moved to the escalation approvers. Escalation approvers are not sent an email or Slack message.

Fix. Escalation approvers decide in Studio under Approvals. The original approvers can still decide there too.

The Slack message is there, but you cannot use it

Most likely causes.

• Slack says "You are not an approver for this request". The email on your Slack profile does not match an address on the approver list.
• Slack says it "Could not confirm that you are an approver for this request". Loopfour could not read your Slack profile email. The Slack connection may need to be reconnected with permission to read members' email addresses.
• You are not in the Slack channel the step posts to.

Fix. Match the approver list to your Slack profile email, or decide in Studio. Ask whoever manages Slack to check the channel and the connection.

The email went to spam, or the link no longer works

Most likely causes.

• The email was filtered. Check spam or quarantine for a message about the approval.
• The page says the link "is invalid or has already been used", or that the approval "is no longer pending". Someone else decided first, the time ran out, or the run was stopped.

Fix. Open the run in Studio to see what happened to the request.

The messages could not be delivered

Most likely cause. The step has email or Slack set up, but no message reached any approver. For example, the Slack connection stopped working. The step fails and the run shows "Approval request delivery failed", followed by the reason.

Fix. Fix the cause, such as reconnecting Slack under Integrations, then retry the run. The retry sends the request again. See Fix and retry a failed run.

Still stuck

Send support the run link, the approver's email address and the channel you expected. See Get help.