Common issues

This page collects the issues that come up most often when using ZeroChats and how to fix them. If your case isn’t here, contact support from the dashboard.

Configuration warnings in the dashboard

On the business’s Dashboard, the Notices tile checks your setup and connections on its own and warns you when something is about to stop the AI from working properly; click View notices to read them. Each notice explains what is happening, how to fix it, and includes a button that takes you straight to the screen where you fix it. While there are pending notices, the Dashboard entry in the sidebar wears an attention mark, so you don’t need to open the page to know something needs a look.

Warning	What it means
Calendly or GoHighLevel connection expired	The AI keeps replying, but no longer proposes times. Reconnect the calendar.
Your calendar cannot be read	The chosen event or calendar no longer exists or was renamed. Select it again.
Your calendar has no free slots	There are no times to offer the lead. Open availability or widen the booking range.
Contents whose file no longer exists or won’t download	The AI can’t send them. Upload the file again from Content.
Business information only half filled in	Template gaps have not been replaced with your real data.
AI instructions only half filled in	Same as above, but in the agent’s prompt.
Account temporarily restricted from sending links on Instagram	Instagram is refusing links sent as text from your account. The AI keeps replying, and your link-type contents and sales links go out as a button; only links typed by hand inside a message go undelivered. ZeroChats pauses text links for one hour after the last refusal and the notice shows the minutes left.
Meta has temporarily restricted this account from sending messages	Instagram’s anti-spam system is refusing everything that leaves the account: texts, buttons, audios and images. ZeroChats pauses every send for 15 minutes after the last refusal and probes with the next message. While it lasts, avoid keyword stories and mass sends; once it’s over, space your campaigns out.
Access to messages is turned off on your Instagram	The Allow access to messages permission is off in the Instagram app, so Meta refuses everything ZeroChats sends in every conversation and new messages from your leads don’t arrive either. ZeroChats pauses sends until you turn it back on. See The AI has stopped sending in every conversation.

Check this before assuming the AI is broken

Many “the AI doesn’t book” or “the content never arrives” reports turn out to be one of these warnings. If the block is empty, the problem is somewhere else.

The AI doesn’t reply to a lead

When a conversation stalls and the AI stays silent, there is almost always a setting holding it back rather than a fault. Go through this list in order:

1. The lead has to write first. The AI never opens a conversation on its own: it only replies once the lead sends you a message. If the last message in the thread is yours, the AI waits for their answer.
2. Check whether the lead is in Manual. The lead detail page has the Automated / Manual switch. Some settings also flip a lead to manual on their own — replying from the Instagram app, sending a link, or writing the first welcome message yourself. Review them in Manual-mode triggers.
3. Check Ignored users. If the Instagram username or the WhatsApp number is on that list, the AI never replies to them.
4. Check Don’t answer leads you follow. Instagram only: if it is on and your account follows that lead, the AI skips them. Details in Don’t answer leads you follow.
5. Check Reply only to keywords. When it is on, leads whose first message doesn’t match any configured keyword stay in manual mode and you have to handle them yourself. See Keywords.
6. Check Office hours. Outside the configured window the AI sends nothing; incoming messages are processed once it is back inside the window. See Office hours.
7. Check the global switch. AI activation, under Settings → When does the AI answer?, pauses every reply for the business. When it’s off, a notice next to the switch reminds you the AI won’t answer any message until you turn it back on. See AI Assistant.
8. Remember Meta’s 24-hour window. If the lead hasn’t written to you in more than 24 hours, Instagram and WhatsApp won’t allow any message until they write again.
9. Allow for the response delay. The AI deliberately waits a few minutes before replying, based on your Response time setting.
10. If it’s WhatsApp Cloud API, check the number is registered. Connecting the number and registering it with Meta are two separate steps: if the PIN registration is missing, your leads’ messages never even reach ZeroChats and the AI never sees them. The business’s WhatsApp screen shows a notice with a Complete registration button. See Complete the number’s registration.

If none of this fits

Open a ticket from Support with the business, the channel (Instagram or WhatsApp), a specific lead and the approximate time you expected the reply. That lets the team review what happened in that conversation.

Leads arrive in manual mode

If leads show up in the CRM marked as Manual the moment they’re created, without you touching anything, it’s almost always because another tool connected to your Instagram is sending the first message (ManyChat, Drivos or another automation).

ZeroChats can’t tell a message you typed by hand from one that tool sent: both leave your account and Meta reports them the same way. When it sees them, the manual-mode triggers act as if you had stepped in:

When the other tool sends the message	Which trigger flips it to manual
It’s the first message of the thread	If the business sends the first welcome message
The conversation already existed	If you reply from Instagram

How to fix it

1. Go to Settings → Manual-mode triggers.
2. Turn off whichever trigger affects you, per the table above. If the other tool sends both welcomes and later messages, turn off both.
3. Check with a fresh lead that the detail page is created with the Automated switch on.

Leads already sitting in manual don’t reactivate on their own: switch them back from their detail page with the Automated / Manual toggle.

Why these triggers exist

They’re there so the AI doesn’t talk over you when you’re handling a conversation yourself. If nobody on your team replies by hand from Instagram, you can leave them off without any issue.

Why did it work before and not now?

Check whether you recently changed these triggers, or whether the other tool started sending a new message (a welcome to new followers, for example). A change on either side is enough for leads to start arriving in manual.

A lead goes back to Automated on its own, or you don’t see their messages

If you put an Instagram lead in Manual and it goes back to Automated on its own when your team writes to them (its history shows the reason “First message of the conversation…”), or a lead writes to you and their messages don’t show in ZeroChats, check whether your Instagram account follows that lead and you have If your Instagram account already follows the lead turned on.

With that setting, messages from leads you follow aren’t saved (they don’t show in the chat, the CRM or the statistics) and the AI doesn’t answer them. Since ZeroChats never sees a message from them, every message from your team counts as the first of the conversation and can switch the lead back to Automated.

If you want to handle those leads yourself and keep them in Manual, or see their messages, turn the setting off. Details in Don’t answer leads you follow.

Another tool is blocking your conversations

If you see the notice “Another tool connected to your Instagram is blocking conversations” under Dashboard → Notices, it means Meta is refusing ZeroChats’ messages in some specific conversations: another tool connected to your account answered first and has kept control of that chat.

How to recognise it:

• The notice tells you how many conversations it has happened in over the last 7 days.
• The affected messages show in the chat as “Not delivered”.
• It is not an account restriction: every other conversation keeps going out normally.
• While it lasts, the AI can’t write in those conversations and automatic follow-up stops insisting on them.

How to fix it

This doesn’t clear up on its own: while the other tool holds control, it will keep blocking those chats. You have these options:

• Turn off that tool’s automation on the posts or conversations you want ZeroChats to handle.
• Leave Instagram without a default app in your Facebook Page’s conversation routing, so no tool gets exclusive control. The step-by-step is in My bot doesn’t reply to new Instagram messages.
• If the AI still can’t reply, connect Instagram with the Facebook login and give ZeroChats control of the conversations. Steps in Conversations blocked by ManyChat.

The notice itself includes a Download step-by-step guide (PDF) button with those instructions, in case you prefer to keep them at hand or pass them to whoever manages the Instagram account.

The notice goes away on its own once a week passes without new refusals.

One automation per conversation

Two tools answering the same comment or the same DM is exactly what causes this block. Split the work: let one handle the first reply and the other the rest, but never both at once on the same conversation.

The AI has stopped sending in every conversation

If the AI suddenly replies to nobody, follow-ups don’t go out, messages show in the chat as “Not delivered” and new messages from your leads don’t reach ZeroChats, check the Allow access to messages permission on your Instagram account. When it’s off, Meta refuses everything we send (AI replies, follow-ups and private messages to people who comment), even though the connection still shows as fine.

In that case you’ll see the notice “Access to messages is turned off on your Instagram” under Dashboard → Notices, and ZeroChats pauses sends from that account while it lasts.

How to fix it

This setting only appears in the Instagram mobile app, not on the website:

1. Go to your profile and open the menu (the three lines).
2. Open Messages and story replies → Message controls.
3. Open Connected tools and turn on Allow access to messages.

Then go back to the business’s Dashboard: sends resume on their own. Afterwards, check the conversations with “Not delivered” messages in case you want to write to a lead yourself.

The AI doesn’t respond the way I want

The AI follows the agent’s prompt to the letter. If the responses aren’t what you expected:

1. Review the prompt in Business & Prompts. Put critical rules in UPPERCASE and repeat them: it helps the AI prioritize them. Be specific about what it must and must not do.
2. Rewrite the prompt using Edit with AI. Describe in natural language how you want your agent to behave and let it rephrase the prompt for you.
3. Test in the Simulator until the behavior feels right. Responses are instant.
4. Learn from real conversations. Copy the chat from the leads panel, paste it into Edit with AI and say exactly how you’d have wanted the AI to reply at that point. The AI adjusts the prompt to fix that kind of situation.
5. If the scenarios are very different, don’t put every script into a single prompt. Create separate agents and use delegations so the lead moves from one to another based on context.

Content doesn’t arrive by DM when commenting

If the lead comments the right keyword but the private message never reaches them, the usual cause is one of these three:

• The lead doesn’t allow messages from your Instagram account.
• ManyChat is active and is replying to the comment before ZeroChats. Run only one of the two automations per post.
• Meta failed to deliver the DM. It’s an intermittent failure on Meta’s side and also happens with other tools. If it repeats a lot, check the Instagram connection status in Business configuration.

More detail in Reels and Posts.

Error 400 — Invalid Session when connecting Instagram

It sometimes appears when clicking Connect Instagram. To fix it:

1. From Instagram (mobile or web):
   • Go to Settings and Privacy.
   • Open Website permissions or Apps and websites.
   • Check the Active and Expired tabs.
   • Look for the ZeroChats app and click Remove or Disconnect.
2. Return to the ZeroChats dashboard and start the connection process from scratch.

If the error persists, also check:

• That the Instagram account is Creator or Business type.
• That it is linked to a Facebook page.
• That the option Settings → Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Your activity off Meta technologies is enabled.

Accounts restricted by Meta

Meta may block API usage on accounts where it detects practices like buying followers. In that case, this error will appear only for that account and can’t be solved from ZeroChats.

Cancel your subscription

Cancelling is done from the Subscription section:

1. Open Subscription.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Cancel subscription link.
3. Tell us the main reason and confirm.

Annual plan

On an annual plan you won’t see that link: cancellation is agreed with your advisor through the Talk to your advisor button on the same page. More detail in Credits, plans and subscription.