Why is my Klaviyo flow not sending?

---

title: "Why is my Klaviyo flow not sending?" description: "A Klaviyo flow shows Live but isn't sending emails for one of seven specific reasons. The decision tree below identifies which one, in under five minutes." slug: "why-is-my-klaviyo-flow-not-sending" publishedAt: "2026-05-19" updatedAt: "2026-05-19" faq:

• q: "Why is my Klaviyo flow not sending?" a: "A Klaviyo flow that shows Live but isn't sending is almost always caused by one of seven things: the trigger event has stopped firing, the flow is in Manual instead of Live mode, a flow filter is blocking entries, Smart Sending is suppressing sends, the integration has de-authenticated, profiles aren't matching the trigger conditions, or the flow was built after subscribers existed (flows are not retroactive)."
• q: "How do I know if my Klaviyo flow is in Live mode?" a: "Open the flow. The top-right status indicator shows Live, Manual, or Draft. Only Live actively sends. Manual and Draft do nothing until manually triggered."
• q: "Why does my Klaviyo flow show zero entries?" a: "Zero entries means no profiles are reaching the flow's trigger. Either the trigger event has stopped firing (check Analytics → Metrics), a flow filter is blocking everyone, or Smart Sending is suppressing entries. Each is diagnosable in under two minutes."
• q: "How long does it take Klaviyo to fire a flow after a trigger event?" a: "Under normal conditions, a profile enters a flow within 1-5 minutes of the trigger event being recorded. If you're not seeing entries within 10 minutes of triggering, the trigger isn't being recorded or a filter is blocking entry."
• q: "Can a Klaviyo flow be Live but still not send emails?" a: "Yes. The flow can be Live while sending nothing if: the trigger event has stopped firing, the trigger filter is too narrow, the flow filter excludes every profile, Smart Sending is suppressing every send, or the integration that feeds the trigger event has de-authenticated."
• q: "Why is my Klaviyo abandoned cart specifically not firing?" a: "Most often: the Started Checkout event has stopped recording (check Analytics → Metrics → Started Checkout), the Klaviyo onsite tracking snippet was removed during a theme update, Smart Sending is suppressing the email, or a flow filter like 'Started Checkout zero times since starting this flow' is self-blocking entries."
• q: "Why is my Klaviyo welcome flow not triggering for new subscribers?" a: "Either the trigger list is wrong (new subscribers landing in a different list than the flow triggers from), double opt-in is enabled but confirmations aren't completing, the 'Date Added to List' filter isn't matching, or the flow was built after the subscribers existed (flows don't run retroactively)."
• q: "Why is my Klaviyo flow sending to the wrong people?" a: "Usually a missing 'Date Added to List is within X days' filter. Without it, any import or backfill operation that adds existing contacts to the trigger list fires the flow for those existing contacts as if they were brand new."
• q: "Why does Klaviyo skip emails in my flow?" a: "Smart Sending. By default, Klaviyo's Smart Sending feature suppresses any email to a profile that received an email in the last 16 hours. Skipped sends don't show as errors — they show as 'Skipped — Smart Sending' in the profile's activity log."
• q: "Will Klaviyo notify me if my flow stops working?" a: "No. Klaviyo's UI continues to show the flow as Live regardless of whether trigger events are firing, profiles are entering, or sends are being suppressed. Detection of these failures requires watching the underlying metrics, which is not surfaced in Klaviyo's default dashboard." related:
• klaviyo-abandoned-cart-flow-not-firing
• klaviyo-welcome-flow-not-triggering
• klaviyo-flow-not-sending-emails
• klaviyo-checkout-started-event-not-working

---

A Klaviyo flow that shows Live but isn't sending is almost always caused by one of seven specific things: the trigger event has stopped firing, the flow is in Manual instead of Live mode, a flow filter is blocking entries, Smart Sending is suppressing sends, the integration has de-authenticated, profiles aren't matching the trigger conditions, or the flow was built after the relevant profiles existed (flows are not retroactive). This page walks through each in order, so you can identify which one in under five minutes.

The short answer

Open Analytics → Metrics in Klaviyo and find the metric your flow triggers on. If the chart shows a flat right edge — no events in the last few hours — the trigger has stopped firing. That's your problem. If the trigger is firing normally but the flow has zero entries, check your flow filters and Smart Sending settings. If both look correct, the integration feeding the trigger event has likely de-authenticated.

The longer answer

The trigger event has stopped firing

This is the single most common cause and the hardest to spot from inside Klaviyo. The flow editor shows everything green, the flow status is Live, but the metric Klaviyo uses to decide whether to put someone into the flow has stopped recording new events.

To check: Analytics → Metrics → find the trigger event (Started Checkout for abandoned cart, Placed Order for post-purchase, Added to Cart for some flows). The chart should show steady event volume during traffic hours. A flat line on the right edge means events have stopped landing.

Most common root causes: the Klaviyo onsite tracking snippet has been removed from your storefront (often after a theme update), or your ecommerce platform's OAuth token has expired and webhooks have stopped delivering events to Klaviyo.

The flow is in Manual or Draft mode

Open the flow. The top-right of the flow editor shows the status: Live, Manual, or Draft. Only Live actively triggers and sends. Manual mode is for testing — it only fires when you manually push a profile into the flow. Draft mode does nothing.

To check: open the flow and read the status indicator. To fix: change status to Live.

This sounds trivial but it's a real failure mode. Flows get switched to Manual during testing and don't get switched back. New team members assume Live is the default. Always check status first.

A flow filter is blocking every profile

Flow filters run on every profile entering the flow. If a filter evaluates false for every possible profile, no one enters.

The classic offender: "Started Checkout zero times since starting this flow" on an abandoned cart flow triggered by Started Checkout. The trigger says "this person started checkout"; the filter says "this person hasn't started checkout"; the filter immediately removes everyone the trigger added.

To check: open the flow, click the trigger node, read every filter. Ask: could this filter evaluate true for every profile entering the flow? If unsure, click "Preview" or "Test" on the filter against a known profile.

Smart Sending is suppressing sends

Smart Sending is Klaviyo's deduplication feature. By default, it suppresses any send to a profile that received an email in the last 16 hours.

For abandoned cart, this almost always works against you: a customer who received your daily campaign two hours ago and then abandoned a cart will not receive the abandoned cart email. Skipped sends don't appear as errors — they show as "Skipped — Smart Sending" in profile activity logs.

To check: open each email in the flow and look at the Smart Sending toggle. If it's ON for time-critical emails (abandoned cart, welcome), that's likely your problem.

The integration has de-authenticated

Klaviyo connects to Shopify, WooCommerce, ReCharge, Skio, and many other services via OAuth. Tokens periodically expire. When they do, the events feeding Klaviyo stop landing, and any flow triggered by those events goes silent.

To check: Settings → Integrations → click each connected service. Look for warnings like "Your credentials have expired" or "Please reconnect." Klaviyo typically displays these but doesn't surface them as alerts.

Profiles aren't matching the trigger conditions

Sometimes the trigger event fires but with attributes that don't match the flow's expected filter. A common pattern: a flow triggers on Placed Order but filters on "Order value > $50." If your AOV has dropped, most orders no longer match.

To check: open the trigger node and review the filter conditions. Are they tighter than you intend? Are they referencing custom properties that may have changed?

The flow was built after profiles existed (not retroactive)

Klaviyo flows are forward-only. If you build a welcome flow today and 10,000 subscribers exist already, those 10,000 will not enter the flow — only future signups will.

This trips up newer Klaviyo users frequently. If your flow has zero entries and you can't find any trigger or filter issue, ask: when did the flow get built relative to when the profiles I expected to be in it were created?

To work around this: you can manually trigger the flow on a segment via "Add profiles to flow" — but be cautious about firing welcome emails on contacts who already know you.

Related symptoms

If you're trying to diagnose a specific symptom, the failure mode is usually narrower:

• "Flow shows zero entries": Trigger event not firing, flow filter blocking, or integration de-authenticated
• "Emails arrive but late": Smart Sending may have delayed sends; check delivery timestamps
• "Emails skipped": Smart Sending is suppressing; check the toggle on each email
• "Wrong people getting emails": Missing "Date Added" filter, or trigger list is wrong
• "Worked yesterday, not today": Recent change — integration token expired, theme update, plugin update, or someone modified the flow

How to check this in Klaviyo

Run this 5-minute diagnostic in order:

1. Check flow status. Top-right of the flow editor. Must be Live.
2. Check trigger event volume. Analytics → Metrics → your trigger. Must show recent events.
3. Check flow entries. Flow's "Latest entries" tab. If zero in last 24 hours, profiles aren't reaching the flow.
4. Check flow filters. Read every filter on the trigger node. Identify any that could evaluate false for all profiles.
5. Check Smart Sending. Each email's settings. OFF for abandoned cart and welcome; can be ON for less time-critical flows.
6. Check integration status. Settings → Integrations. No warnings.

If all six look correct and the flow still isn't sending, run a test by triggering the flow's trigger event yourself (test purchase, test signup, etc.) and watch what happens at each step.

When to escalate

If you've run the diagnostic and the flow still isn't working, the issue is likely one of these less-common causes:

• Template rendering errors. If the email template references catalog data that no longer exists (deleted SKUs, removed product properties), the email may skip silently with a templating error.
• Profile suppression. The specific profile you're testing with may be suppressed (bounced, complained, unsubscribed). Try with a fresh profile.
• Account-level issue. Klaviyo's processing layer may be temporarily delayed. Check status.klaviyo.com.
• Custom event mapping wrong. If your flow triggers on a custom event from a non-standard integration, the event payload may have changed format without the flow being updated.

If you're seeing flow drift like this regularly, the gap between "flow broke" and "you noticed" is the actual problem. Playbook runs hourly scans against trigger metrics, flow entry counts, and integration health — so you find out within an hour, not at next month's review.