Quick fixes for the most common issues with the Messages portal.

If the Messages page shows "Turn on two-way SMS":
You haven't enabled two-way SMS yet. Click Enable two-way SMS. See Enabling Two-Way SMS.

If the inbox is showing but the list is empty:
You haven't exchanged any SMS with leads yet. The list only shows conversations with at least one message. Send a message to a lead with a phone number, or wait for a lead to reply to a campaign.

If conversations were visible before and now aren't:
Refresh the page (Cmd+R / Ctrl+R). If it persists, the system may be briefly unable to connect — wait a few minutes and try again.

Compose box is replaced with an opt-out notice:
The lead has opted out of SMS. You can't text them until they text START to opt back in. See When a Lead Opts Out (STOP).

Send button says "Sending…":
Your previous send is still processing. Wait a second or two.

"Rate limit: 10 messages per minute. Try again shortly":
You've sent 10 messages in the past minute (a safety limit). Wait a minute and it resets.

"Two-way SMS is not enabled for this account":
Two-way SMS has been turned off. See Enabling Two-Way SMS to turn it back on.

"Lead has no phone number":
The lead's record has no phone number. Add a valid number to their profile and try again.

"This number is a landline and can't receive SMS":
The lead's phone is a landline (confirmed by carrier lookup). Landlines don't receive texts — reach this lead by phone call or email instead.

"This lead has been auto-blocked due to repeated carrier filtering":
The carrier rejected repeated attempts to this number (usually invalid, on a do-not-text list, or filtered as spam). Contact your account team if you think it's a mistake.

Check the recipient is added:
Open Settings (the gear, top-right) and look at the Notify on reply list. Each recipient shows as a chip — if your email isn't there, add it.

Check your spam folder:
Notification emails come from [email protected] and can occasionally land in spam, especially the first few times. Mark one "Not Spam" so future ones land in your inbox.

A notification may have just been sent:
The system sends at most one notification per lead per 5 minutes. If a lead sends three texts in two minutes, you get one email; the next won't fire for 5 minutes.

Confirm two-way SMS is on:
Notifications only fire when two-way SMS is enabled.

Use the + New button at the top of the conversation list. Search by name, email, or phone — leads we can actually send to appear. Click a result, send your first message, and they'll show in the regular list going forward.

If a lead doesn't appear in the results, one of these is usually true:

If a lead should be sendable but isn't appearing, contact your account team with the lead's name + phone number.

They may not be in your lead database:
The inbox only shows conversations from leads in your database with a phone number on file. A text from a number that isn't a lead is captured but won't show.

They may have opted out, or it's an opt-out keyword:
Opt-out messages (STOP/UNSUBSCRIBE) are tucked behind the "Show … opt-out messages" bar above the list — click it to reveal them. Opted-out leads' history is still readable; search by name to find them.

Give it a moment:
New messages usually appear within a few seconds. If the page has been open a long time, refresh.

On add-on plans, this appears when your account has no card on file with Stripe. The note includes an Add a payment method button — click it to open the secure billing portal and add a card. Then:

The payment attempt failed on Stripe's side — usually a declined card (insufficient funds, fraud check, expired) or a card that needs extra verification (3D Secure). Open your billing portal to review or update the card and try again. If a card that should work keeps failing, ask your card issuer whether they're blocking the charge, then retry.

This is legacy data from before a fix. When one person signed up for multiple events, an outbound message could go to one record while their reply landed on another, splitting the conversation. Going forward, all messages with one person thread to a single conversation. Old split conversations aren't auto-merged — the most recent one is where new replies arrive; the older ones are historical. If you'd like them merged, contact your account team.

The lead exists with that phone number but their name fields are empty, so the portal shows the number. Add a name to the lead's profile and refresh.

After clicking Disable in Settings (the gear → Message settings) and confirming, the page should immediately show the disabled state. If it doesn't, refresh — the setting persists on reload. If you still see the inbox, open Settings and click Disable again.

If your issue isn't covered here, reach out with: the exact error message (if any), what you were trying to do, roughly when it happened, and whether teammates are affected too. That helps us diagnose much faster.