Skip to main content

Why Follow-Ups Are Still Sending to Leads Who Replied

Updated this week

You can check the lead's Activities section to see if replies were detected and if follow-ups were sent afterward:

  • Go to the Leads section of your campaign

  • Search for the lead

  • Click on the lead

  • Navigate to the "Activities" section in the right pop-up panel

    • Reply detected: Look for "Replied" event

    • Follow-ups sent after reply: Check the timeline after reply date

If follow-ups are sent after your leads reply, here are the main reasons and how to fix them.

1. Campaign Settings

Check the "Stop sending emails on reply" setting:

  • Go to your campaign's Options tab

  • Find "Stop sending emails on reply"

  • Ensure it's not disabled

This setting is enabled by default to automatically stop all future follow-ups when a lead replies. If you disabled it previously, this only affects new replies received AFTER you enable this setting. Leads who replied before enabling this setting won't be retroactively stopped.


2. Lead Management Issues

Manual changes to leads can reset their status and restart the sequence.

Move Leads Between Campaigns

  • You move leads with 'Reply Received' status to another campaign

  • Campaign progression statuses like 'Reply received' won't be preserved even if the 'Reset lead interest status' is unchecked

  • Lead starts from Step 1 in the new campaign

Delete and Re-upload Leads

  • You delete leads with 'Reply Received' status from the campaign

  • Later re-upload the same lead

  • Lead restarts from Step 1 (as if brand new)

We recommend not moving or deleting leads with 'Reply Received' status.


3. Subsequence Email

If a subsequence is enabled for statuses such as 'Interested' or keywords in leads' replies, leads will still receive the subsequence emails even though they have replied.

This is intended: subsequences are designed for targeted follow-up after replies.

If you don't want subsequences to send:

  • Go to the Subsequences tab in your campaign

  • Review active subsequences

  • Disable or modify relevant triggers as needed

  • Save changes


4. Reply Detection Issues

If replies from your leads aren't being detected properly by Instantly, follow-ups will continue.

Lead Replied from Different Email Address

  • Lead forwards your email to a colleague, or replies from a different email than the one you contacted

  • Instantly can't match the reply to the lead

  • Reply appears in "Others" folder, not Primary

  • Follow-ups continue because no reply was detected

How to check replies in the 'Others' folder:

  • Go to Unibox

  • Check the "Others" folder

  • Look for replies from your leads

Important: Toggle the 'Save non-Instantly emails in Unibox' button in the Preferences to sync non-Instantly replies in the Others folder.

You can use the "Attach Lead" feature to move replies to the "Primary" folder:

  • Find the reply in the "Others" folder

  • Click the three dots (...) in the top right

  • Select "Attach Lead"

  • Enter the original lead's email address

  • The reply moves to "Primary" folder

  • Follow-ups stop for that lead

Email Forwarding Settings

If you use email forwarding:

  • Ensure a copy of emails remains in your original mailbox

  • Don't move or delete original messages after forwarding

  • Configure "Keep a copy in inbox" or similar setting with your provider

Instantly detects replies by checking your mailbox. If the original email is moved or deleted, we can't detect it.

Reply-To Address Configuration

If you set a reply-to address for your accounts, ensure that you have connected that reply-to address to your Instantly workspace to detect replies.

Auto-Reply Settings

To detect automated responses in Unibox, enable "Save auto-replies" in your preferences settings.

Active Sending Accounts

Email accounts must be connected and active. Our system can't check for replies if the sending accounts are paused or disconnected. To check account status:

Did this answer your question?