Replies and the outreach queue
Triage replies to your outreach, read the queue to find out why a send is held, and use the Status tab and master pause to answer is anything sending right now.
This page covers the two places you look when outreach is running: Replies, where answers land and get triaged, and the Queue, which shows every pending send and — when something is held — the exact reason. It ends with the master pause, because eventually you will need to stop everything at once.
Before you start
Replies needs the outreach tab permission, your workspace activated for outreach, and at least one connected mailbox. The Queue needs sequence view access. The Status tab is more widely visible and does not need the outreach activation.
Master pause
It has to be off — switched on, nothing on the Zyan plane moves
Sending — dispatcher
The workspace stage has to be on
The mailbox
Outreach sending on, inside its window, under its cap
The send itself
A DNC, token, evidence, quality or review hold stops it here
Sent
Any answer comes back into Replies
Triage replies
Open Replies
OutboundReplies — pick a folder: All replies, Unread, Hot leads, Needs review, Auto-reply on or Closed.
Scope to a mailbox
Choose one mailbox, or leave it on All mailboxes.
Open a thread
Thread details carries the triage classification and the linked lead and company records.
Reply
The composer is at the bottom of the thread.
Replies only shows outreach threads
Client mail, receipts and general correspondence are deliberately excluded — they live in the connected Inbox. A missing client reply here is not a sync failure, it is the design. If a thread shows No messages synced yet, the mailbox sync has not pulled that thread's bodies yet.
The outreach queue
OutboundSequencesQueue lists every pending send. Read the counters first: Queued, Sending, Needs review, Failed and Blocked. Then search by recipient, sequence or hold reason, and filter by status and niche.
Why a send is held
| Hold | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| DNC | The address hard-bounced, opted out, or the lead is blocked | Nothing — this is the suppression working. Remove them from the audience |
| Blocked | The business is suppressed | Unsuppress the business if the block was wrong |
| Token failure | A merge token in the step had no value for this recipient | Fix the step copy, or fill the missing field on the lead |
| Evidence hold | Personalisation could not be backed by the evidence it needs | Lower the personalisation depth on the sequence, or let the prospect data catch up |
| Quality hold | The draft did not clear the critic threshold, or it repeats something sent recently | Rewrite the step; near-identical copy across sends is the usual cause |
| Mailbox hold | The mailbox itself cannot send — paused, over cap, or outside its window | Open mailboxes and read that mailbox's status |
| Review hold | Your first-touch approval mode is holding it for you | Approve it, or loosen the approval mode on the sequence |
| Dispatch hold | It is queued but the dispatcher will not release it | Check the master pause and the dispatcher stage, below |
| Execution blocked | The send failed, was skipped or was cancelled | Open the row for the detail line |
A queued row with no hold usually reads Waiting for next send window — the mailbox's sending hours have not opened yet.
Settings reference
| Setting | What it changes | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Folders | Which replies are listed: All replies, Unread, Hot leads, Needs review, Auto-reply on, Closed. | All replies |
| Mailboxes | Scopes the reply list to one connected mailbox. | All mailboxes |
| Search threads | Searches threads, people and subjects. | — |
| Status filter | Which execution states the queue lists. | — |
| Niche filter | Limits the queue to one niche. | All niches |
| Master pause | Stops the sequence dispatcher, the pipeline coordinator, prospecting sweeps, automation-triggered enrolments, and broadcasts that are mid-send. | Off |
Is anything sending right now?
OutboundSettingsStatus is where Outbound Settings opens, with one card per channel: Sequences, Automations, One-time emails and Campaigns (Smartlead). This is the fastest answer to "did that actually go out?" and the first thing to check when something looks stuck.
The master pause does not stop Smartlead
The master pause covers the Zyan outreach plane: the dispatcher, the coordinator, prospecting sweeps, automation enrolments and in-flight broadcasts. Smartlead runs on Smartlead's own infrastructure and keeps going. To stop a Smartlead campaign, pause it on the Smartlead page or in Smartlead itself.
Status unavailable is not a zero
A card that reads Status unavailable failed to read, which is different from reading "nothing is sending". A card can also tell you it cannot look because of your permissions. Neither is proof that sending has stopped.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Client replies never appear in Replies | Only outreach-linked threads are listed | Use the connected Inbox; nothing is broken |
| A thread reads No messages synced yet | The mailbox sync has not pulled that thread's bodies | Wait for the next sync, or open the thread again shortly |
| Everything sits at Queued | Master pause on, dispatcher stage off, no mailbox with outreach sending, window closed, or cap spent | Check Settings → Status, then the dispatcher toggle, then the mailbox |
| Rows are Blocked with no obvious cause | Read the hold label on the row | Use the hold table above — each one has a different fix |
| Smartlead keeps sending after the master pause | The master pause does not reach Smartlead | Pause the campaign on the Smartlead page |
| A card reads Status unavailable | The status read failed | Reload; if it persists, do not treat it as confirmation that sending stopped |