🕹️ Temporarily Pause Or Stop Your Queue
Sometimes you may need to pause your Queue - whether it’s during seasonal breaks, while reviewing your content strategy, or when updating social profiles and permissions.
SmarterQueue provides flexible options to pause publishing for specific Categories, Social Profiles, or even your entire Queue, and resume it when you’re ready.
📌 In This Article
- How To Pause The Entire Queue
- How To Pause Individual Categories Or Social Profiles
- Resuming Publishing
- Post Behavior While Paused
How To Pause The Entire Queue
To stop publishing across your entire Queue:
- Navigate to the Queue: Go to the "Publish" section and select your Queue.
- Toggle the Pause Button: Locate the option to “Pause All” publishing in the upper-right corner and toggle it on.
- Confirm Your Action: You’ll receive a confirmation prompt to ensure you want to pause all posts. Once confirmed, no content will be published until you resume.
Paused content will remain in the Queue but will not be published until you resume the combination. You will also find it under “Paused” instead of “Upcoming”.
How To Pause Individual Categories Or Social Profiles
To pause publishing for specific Categories or Social Profiles:
- Go to Settings: Navigate to the “Pause Settings” section of SmarterQueue. You can access it by clicking the link in the confirmation prompt after toggling 'Pause All' in the Queue or by selecting “Settings” via the cog icon in the screen's upper-right corner.
- Check “Custom Pause Controls” options:
- You can temporarily stop publishing for specific Categories or Social Profiles by switching them from “Active” to “Paused” using their dropdowns.
- To pause specific Category and Social Profile combinations, use the cog buttons for each one.
Resuming Publishing
To resume publishing:
- Re-enable Individual Categories or Social Profiles: If you’ve paused specific combinations, return to “Pause Settings” and toggle the pause button off.
- Resume All Content: If you paused the entire Queue, return to the Queue and toggle publishing back on using the “Unpause All” button.
- Check Your Queue: Review the Upcoming section to ensure posts are scheduled as expected.
Post Behavior While Paused
When you pause your Queue (or specific Categories or social profiles), all affected posts move to the "Paused" section. They remain part of your Queue but are temporarily hidden from the "Upcoming" view until publishing resumes.
While the Queue is paused, no new posts will publish. Depending on how long the pause lasts and how each post was scheduled, their state may change:
Post Type | What Happens When Paused | What Happens When Unpaused |
---|---|---|
Queued & Evergreen | Move to "Paused" and wait for publishing to resume. | Resume following your Posting Plan, continuing to publish and recycle automatically. |
Manually Scheduled / Recurring | Move to "Paused". If their scheduled date/time passes while paused, they move to "Failed". |
Posts whose dates haven’t passed return to "Upcoming"; posts that missed their scheduled time remain in "Failed" and need rescheduling. |
“Post Now” posts are still published immediately. Pausing the Queue gives you time to halt automation and review your scheduled content, while "Post Now" allows you to make specific posts in the meantime, offering flexibility as you update or assess your content.
Seasonal Category Behavior
When a Seasonal Category is outside its active date range, it’s considered paused automatically.
Any posts from that Category that are saved in your Queue will appear in the "Paused" section until the Category becomes active and its Timeslots are available again.
📝 Note: All posts within a paused Queue, Category, or social profile are affected equally — you can’t pause individual posts.