Edit a live sequence

An active sequence has real contacts at its steps, and you can still change it: add a step, swap an email, or adjust a wait. RadarSend pauses the sequence while you work, so nobody is sent anything half-finished, and each contact carries on from where they were when you resume.

This page covers changing a sequence after it’s live. To build one in the first place, see Build an email sequence.

Before you begin#

• An Active or Paused sequence. A Draft needs none of this: edit it and save.
• Nothing sends while the sequence is paused for editing, so plan to finish in one sitting.

Make a change#

1. Open the sequence and click Edit steps in the header.
2. In Pause to edit this sequence?, click Pause and edit. Every contact freezes where they are, and nothing sends.
3. Add, remove, or change steps as you would in a draft.
4. Click Save changes.
5. Click Resume.

Contacts pick up where they were, following the updated flow. While you’re editing, a banner reads Editing a live sequence with the number of contacts in flight, and steps with people on them show how many are waiting here.

Resume stays disabled until your changes are saved. To give up on an edit, click Resume anyway and choose Discard changes and resume.

What your change reaches#

RadarSend remembers where each contact is, so a change only affects the steps they haven’t reached yet.

Contacts in the middle of a wait#

While a contact is in a timed Wait, RadarSend already has them lined up for the step that comes after it, with the time they’re due. That has three effects worth knowing:

• Their waiting here count shows on the step after the Wait, not on the Wait itself.
• A step you insert directly after a Wait is skipped by contacts who are in that Wait right now. They go on to the step they were lined up for. Everyone who reaches the Wait later gets the new step.
• Deleting the Wait itself doesn’t remove anyone. Deleting the step after it does.

Removing a step that contacts are on#

Contacts on a step you delete can’t continue, because there’s nothing left to move them forward. They leave the sequence and get none of the later steps.

RadarSend won’t do that without asking. When you save, Remove a step with contacts on it? names the steps and how many people are on each. Cancel to keep the step, or click Remove and exit N contacts to go ahead.

To remove a step without losing the people on it:

• Wait for it to empty. Its waiting here count goes down as contacts move on. Once it’s zero, delete it and nobody is affected. For a step that follows a Wait, that takes as long as the Wait.
• Build a replacement. Duplicate the sequence, make your changes in the copy, and activate it. Then archive the original once its remaining contacts have finished. Nobody is cut off, and new contacts get the new flow.

Incomplete changes are refused#

A sequence with contacts in it has to stay runnable at every moment, so RadarSend won’t save a change that leaves it broken: a send step with no email, a condition with no rule, or a step that nothing leads to. You’ll see a message saying the sequence has to stay runnable. Unlike activating a draft, the faulty steps aren’t marked on the canvas, so check the steps you changed.

This is stricter than a draft, where you can save half-built work and finish later.

Reach contacts who already finished#

A new step reaches everyone still moving through the sequence, but not people who already completed it. On a welcome series that’s been running for months, that’s most of the people who’ve ever been through it.

To catch them up:

1. Add and save your new step, then Resume the sequence.
2. On the Enrollments tab, click Back-fill a step.
3. Start them at — the step to drop them in at, usually the one you just added. Send and Action steps can be chosen. Everything before it is skipped, so nobody gets an email they already had.
4. How far back? — how recently they need to have finished: 7 days, 30 days, 90 days (the default), 6 months, 1 year, or Anyone who has ever finished.
5. Check the count, then click Enroll N contacts.

The count updates as you change the options, and nobody is enrolled until you confirm. Each run takes up to 5,000 people, oldest finishers first; run it again for the rest.

Who’s included#

• Included: contacts who completed the sequence in the window you chose.
• Never included: contacts who bounced, marked your email as spam, or were removed from the sequence, and anyone still in it. They’ll reach the new step on their own.
• Left out by default: contacts who reached the sequence’s goal. They already did what the sequence was for, so a follow-up is usually off-message. Turn on Include contacts who converted to add them.
• Checked at send time: anyone who unsubscribed since finishing is counted in the preview but won’t be emailed.

Each contact can be back-filled into a given step once, so running the same back-fill again won’t email anyone twice. Back-filling them into a different step later still works.

Choosing a window#

Someone who finished last week will remember the sequence. Someone who finished two years ago is closer to a cold contact getting a surprise email, which is more of a deliverability risk than a win. Start with a short window; you can run it again with a longer one.

Contacts also have a limit on how many sequence emails they get, by default 2 a day and 5 a week across all your sequences. A contact already at that limit skips this email and carries on, so a very large back-fill can miss the people who are already getting a lot from you. Run it in smaller batches if that matters.

Common issues#

• Can’t edit the canvas. If the sequence is Active, click Edit steps; it pauses first, then opens for editing. If it’s Archived, see the next item.
• The sequence is archived. Archived sequences are read-only. Unarchive it from the Sequences list, which returns it to Draft. Its contacts stay frozen until you Activate it again, which checks the whole flow first. Or Duplicate it into a new draft.
• “Pause the sequence before editing its steps.” The sequence went live again before your save landed, usually because it’s open in another tab. Reload, then click Edit steps.
• “The sequence changed … while you were editing.” Someone resumed or archived it in another tab or session. Reload and start the edit again.
• The save was refused with a contact count. You’re removing a step people are on. Cancel and keep it, or confirm to remove it and take those contacts out.
• The save was refused because the sequence has to stay runnable. A step you changed is incomplete. Finish it, then save.
• Back-fill says no contacts match. Nobody finished in that window, or everyone who did was already back-filled into that step. Try a longer window.
• Back-fill a step isn’t there. It only appears on an Active sequence. Resume first, then back-fill.

Good to know#

• Pausing is safe. Contacts freeze in place and resume from the same step. Nothing is lost and nothing is sent twice.
• Pausing a sequence that another one hands off into is safe too. Contacts arriving at the handoff wait instead of dropping out, for up to 7 days.
• Don’t leave a sequence paused. It sends nothing while paused. If you abandon an edit, resume it or archive it.
• Contacts are tied to the step itself, not its position. Adding or removing steps elsewhere doesn’t move anyone; what matters to a waiting contact is whether their step still exists.
• A step with contacts on it can’t become a different kind of step. Add a new step and remove the old one once it’s empty.
• Duplicate for big rewrites. If you’re restructuring a sequence, build the new version as a copy and activate that, rather than reshaping a flow with hundreds of people inside it.