New Follower message not sending

I have 3 accounts and having the same issue with new follower message - I also cannot refresh my permissions it just logs me in then its an infinite loop. 

We’ve seen similar weird behavior with the New Follower automation too, so I don’t think it’s just your account.

One thing to keep in mind is that ManyChat says this trigger only works once per follower, and Meta also limits it to one Follow-to-DM message per user per week. So part of the inconsistency can come from platform limits, not only from your setup.

The part about the permissions popup opening Instagram instead of showing the approval screen does sound buggy though. If that’s happening on multiple client accounts, I’d treat it as more of a ManyChat/Meta issue than a wrong setting on your side. ManyChat’s own troubleshooting docs point back to reconnecting Instagram, refreshing permissions, and checking the connection flow.

So I’d say: some of this is expected because of Meta limits, but if brand new followers still aren’t getting the DM, that part sounds like a real bug.

Yeah that is exactly what I’m seeing, brand new followers not getting this message. I have even seen the automations from Keyword start, do the actions nodes, and then not send the messages on few clients. 
It is becoming really annoying

I'm having the same problem today, March 17. Manychat suddenly stopped sending messages on Instagram. It makes no sense to continue like this if Facebook's APIs are coming and going all the time. At this point, don't mislead your customers!

I’m having the same issue. Only a few messages (under 10) got sent yesterday even though I gained +150 new followers. My comment-based flows still work. Based in EU. Did Meta change something in the API or what is causing the issues?

Hi ​@josip856 , sorry it is not working for all your clients but some of the issues you are describing are normal. 

According to Manychat Follow to DM on IG guide, “The Follow to DM automation triggers only once per follower. If someone unfollows and then follows again, it won’t run a second time” 

In addition; “The Follow to DM automation is currently in beta, which means it is not available to all Manychat accounts yet”. “Eligibility for this automation is determined by Meta, not Manychat. Because of this, some accounts may see the automation available in their workspace while others may not.”

Here is full guide so you can check it: https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/23096654243740-Follow-to-DM-on-Instagram-Say-Hi-to-New-Followers-BETA

Hope this helps to clarify;

Cheers!

Catalina Rendon

I don't understand the point. I've been on Manychat for 2 months and it's always worked perfectly, contacting all followers. Since March 17th, it's suddenly blocked. Can you give honest answers? What's happening between Meta and Manychat? It doesn't make sense for me to pay a subscription with this poor service. At this point, don't complain if some YouTuber comes along and makes a video denouncing these poor services. Then don't mislead people on the front page by posting that you have this "follower welcome" exclusivity if it's impractical for everyone.

Hi Catalina,

This isn’t the case of it newer working, but for clients who had it since for months, for whom it worked for perfectly, all of a sudden not working. 

Yesterday, Match 17th, I am pretty sure that it didn’t work a single new follower, today, it is hit an miss. And this is not case of not working if they follow/unfollow, or already in conversation and then follow. We have tested this with new profiles manually, and it does not work.

I’ve seen some articles that say that it only works on a 1-per-week basis for profiles, but that is simply not true.
We tested multiple accounts daily (for months) from the same IG profile and it worked fine for all, it even worked if that contact is deleted on Manychat, and then unfollowed and followed previously, until yesterday. We have also seen it fire of TWICE if lead follows, unfollows and then follows the page again, which can lead to some undesirable outcome

I get it if it stopped working for those “harder” cases of manual testing, but this option is crucial for a lost of our clients and if there is no official acknowledgment of the problem and a fix, I am afraid that a lot of us will have to turn to third party solution.

If you could please look into the issue, and provide us with either the limitations of when it won’t 100% work for normal followers, or a way to fix this bug because refreshing permissions does not help it.

Hi ​@Wictoria , I cannot give you an answer regarding you own case, as I dont work for Manychat, I am user like you, I just have plenty of experience and I support this community with their questions. What I would suggest you to do is to contact Manychat support team directly so they can help you understand why your automations are not working from the date you had mentioned. Here is a guide on how to contact support: How to get support from Manychat – Manychat Help

Hi Catalina,

This is not true as have personally unfollowed → deleted contact on MC. Then followed again and recieved the welcome message numerous times testing several automations. 

Is this the reason why it has stopped working. I only saw this now pop up randomly. Is there an option to update the connection manually from the settings?

Hi ​@josip856 

I completely understand your frustration with this new feature. As I mentioned to others in this thread, I don’t work for ManyChat — I’m a user just like you — so unfortunately I don’t have visibility into why it’s not working properly on your account, why the FDM is triggering multiple times for the same user, or why it stopped working.

What ManyChat recommends is to make sure your Instagram account is connected using the new Unified Instagram onboarding flow. You can follow this guide to check and reconnect if needed:
https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/14281308423452-Instagram-automation-troubleshooting

You can also reach out directly to ManyChat’s support team for further assistance. Here’s how to contact them: How to get support from Manychat – Manychat Help

Cheers, Cata

I am also having the same problem. It has been like that for the last 45-48 hours. It has been working perfectly for months and suddenly it stopped. The issue is not the automation, but that Manychat does not detect new followers (at least not 95% of them) so there is not new contact to send the DM. I still have not seen this pop up, but tried several times to refresh permissions and nothing. Also, everyone I know who uses this tool, is experiencing exactly the same. After creating a ticket about it to support team, no answer at all. Our business (and I guess many others) rely a lot in this tool and we cannot afford it not working without a solution. Does anyone know any other third party tool for it?

Is this the reason why it has stopped working. I only saw this now pop up randomly. Is there an option to update the connection manually from the settings?

It didn't come out for me, where did you find it?

Hey everyone,

For the past 2 days, my welcome DMs have completely stopped sending, even though everything was working perfectly before.

I’ve double-checked everything:
– Instagram is still connected
– Automations are active
– No changes were made on my side

But still… nothing is going out.

have you managed to fix the issue ? 

Any help would be massively appreciated 🙏

Same here… hope it works soon again!

Hello 

Is it only me or we are back to the same issue since the weekend ? 

Thanks 

Atualizando que eu 24/3 ainda continuo com o problema de envio de DM pra novos seguidores desde o dia 17

Hi ​@cata_rendon 

Is there any update on the welcome DM issue?

Do you know if Meta is working on a fix or if there’s any timeline for this?

Also, are there any recommendations or workarounds you’d suggest in the meantime?

This has been quite impactful on our side ( I m sure I m not alone )!so I’d really appreciate any guidance.

Thank you

Hi ​@laurie3415 as far as I know Meta already identified the issue and is working on it. You can track the development in here: https://status.manychat.com/

Regarding a workaround I don´t think there is something that can 100% replace it. However you can create welcome post in you IG account - fixed post - encouraging  followers to comment on it, so you can start a conversation. i.e Try  a giveaway or a welcome package.

Hope this helps

Cheers

catalina rendon

I’ve been having this issue with the “Say Hi to new follower” automation for the past two weeks, and my welcome messages still aren’t being sent. It’s honestly driving me crazy. I refreshed the permissions and it didn’t help.

​@Malgo tell me about it 🤯

This is really affecting my performance as manually we are quickly restricted . I don't have much hope this is going to be fixed .  

I have been tracking how many times our Follow to DM automation triggered weekly and compared it to our new followers and can verify that between 3/12 and 3/19, it stopped working normally. It triggered about 50% of the time then the next week, even less, continuing on. This week we had 171 follows and the automation triggered 17 times, about 15%. So not complete failure, but nowhere near the way it behave before (95% of new follows were getting the message before 3/12).

Hoping this issue is resolved soon.

​@coffeejelly4321 

I would love to 😅 47 messages sent since the 24/03 while I m getting 200 follower per day 🙃