Recover a post stuck in review

A post stays in pending approval and no one can tell whether it is waiting on a person, a client, or a fix. Creators see the same status for days; approvers are unsure whether they already acted.

Symptoms

You may see one or more of these patterns:

• The post shows pending approval in App Home, Workflow, or the approval thread.
• The creator submitted for review, but no approver received a usable notification.
• An approver emptied their queue, yet the creator still sees pending approval.
• The post preview lists review reasons or a workflow step, but no one knows who should act next.
• A client approval pack is still open on a parallel path while internal review looks finished.

Likely causes

• The assigned approver has not opened the review yet.
• The post is on a later step in a multi-step approval workflow.
• You are viewing a different brand than the post.
• The approval notification was missed, but the post is still in the queue.
• Client approval is still open on a parallel path.
• Review reasons on the preview point to account, media, or routing blockers that must be cleared first.

A post must be pending approval for the active brand before these steps apply.

Checks

1. Type /social-approve to open the next pending approval for your role.
2. Open Workflow and review Pending approvals for the active brand.
3. Open My Work or Today on App Home and look for the same row.
4. Open the post preview from the approval thread and read status, review reasons, and platform targets.
5. Confirm the brand switcher matches the brand on the post.
6. If you are the creator, ask whether client approval is still open on the pack in the clients dashboard.

Compare what the creator sees in App Home with what the approver sees in /social-approve or Workflow. Mismatches usually mean brand scope or workflow step confusion.

Fixes

After someone approves or rejects, refresh App Home or reopen Workflow so counts and rows match the new status.

Confirm the fix

Status updates after the decision: approved, rejected, changes requested, or scheduled when policy allows. The post disappears from your pending list or shows the next workflow step. Creators and approvers see the same status when they use the same brand.

Prevent it next time

• Submit from the correct brand before review starts.
• Approvers can use /social-approve daily so pending rows do not pile up.
• Creators should share the preview link when review is urgent.
• Admins should keep workflows active and client packs pointed at the right channel before parallel client review opens.
• Resolve review reasons on the preview before re-submitting so the post does not return to the same blocker.

Contact support

Escalate when approvers with the right role see an empty queue but the creator still sees pending approval, or the same post reappears after approval without a visible reason.

Send support:

• Workspace name
• Brand name
• Post title or ID shown in Slack
• Approver Slack names
• Screenshots of both the creator and approver views
• Any review reasons shown on the preview

Related docs

• Edit and review a post
• Create and schedule a post