# Why did stop and notify not notify me?

> A reply handler stopped the contact but no alert arrived; the alert goes to whoever owns the conversation, and a failed in-app alert is never retried.

**The alert goes to whoever owns the conversation, worked out from the mailbox or LinkedIn account that sent the message, not from whoever set the handler up. Check email before concluding nothing fired: if the in-app alert fails it is not retried and nothing reports it, while the email is sent independently. A copied address receives the email but never gets a notification-centre item.**

_Status: Reviewed – written against Reply's product documentation on 2026-09-22, not yet confirmed against the running product._

## Quick fix

1. Check the mailbox of whoever owns the conversation, not your own. Ownership follows the sending mailbox or LinkedIn account.
2. Search your email as well as the notification centre. The two are delivered separately and one can arrive without the other.
3. Open the conversation and confirm the contact was actually stopped. If it was, the handler did fire and this is a delivery question.
4. Check the reply against the question types your handler covers. Replies outside them are handled normally, with no alert.
5. If stop and notify is not offered where you expect to set it, it is not enabled on your account; that is separate from reply handling itself.

Didn't work? [Contact Reply support](https://support.reply.io/); the team can check your account directly.

## Symptom

A reply handler is set to stop and notify. A reply arrived that you expected it to catch. The contact is no longer receiving messages, so something clearly happened, but the notification centre is empty and no email reached you.

## What the setting does when it fires

Setting a reply handler to stop and notify does three things at once:

- **stops** every further message to that contact in that sequence
- **writes no automatic reply** – the AI stays out of it
- **alerts the person who owns the conversation**, by email and in the notification centre, which also arrives as a push on mobile

The email is the detailed one. It carries the contact's name, company and job title, the sequence, the full text of the reply, the question type that triggered the handler, and a button that opens the conversation. You can also copy a second address on it.

That is worth knowing before you investigate, because it means **an alert can half-arrive**. The email and the in-app item travel separately.

## The five reasons no alert reached you

| Cause | Where to look first |
| --- | --- |
| The alert went to the conversation's owner | The inbox of whoever owns the sending mailbox |
| You are a copied address, not the owner | Your email, not the notification centre |
| The in-app alert failed; the email did not | Your email |
| The reply did not match the handler | The question types on the handler |
| The setting is not enabled on your account | Where you set the handler up |

### 1. The alert went to the conversation's owner

The recipient is decided by the mailbox or LinkedIn account the message was sent from, not by who configured the handler. If you set the rule up on a teammate's sequence, or the sequence sends from a mailbox someone else owns, the alert reaches them and not you.

**How to recognize it:** the contact stopped on schedule, and a teammate can find the alert in their own email.

**What to do:** add yourself as the copied address on the handler so you receive the email too.

### 2. You are a copied address, so you get the email only

The second address on a handler receives the email and nothing else. Notification-centre items (and the mobile push that comes with them) go to the owner alone. This is current behaviour.

**How to recognize it:** you were copied deliberately, your email has the alert, and your notification centre has nothing.

**What to do:** work from the email. It contains everything the in-app item does and more, including the full reply and a button through to the conversation.

### 3. The in-app alert failed and the email still went

If the in-app delivery does not succeed it is not attempted again, and nothing anywhere records that it was lost. The email is unaffected by that failure.

The practical consequence: **an empty notification centre is not evidence that the handler did not fire.** Check email before drawing any conclusion.

**How to recognize it:** the contact stopped and the email arrived, but no in-app item exists for it.

**What to do:** nothing to repair for that one reply. If it happens repeatedly on the same account, tell support; the pattern is more useful to them than a single instance.

### 4. The reply did not match the handler

Stop and notify applies only to the question types the handler covers. A reply that falls outside them is handled the normal way, which may include an automatic answer and no alert at all.

**How to recognize it:** the contact was not stopped either. If messages are still going out, the handler did not fire and this is the likely reason.

**What to do:** open the handler and compare its question types against the reply you received. Widening the coverage is usually one setting.

### 5. Stop and notify is not enabled on your account

The capability is separate from reply handling itself, so an account can have reply handling working normally and not have this option.

**How to recognize it:** the option is not offered where you expected to choose it.

**What to do:** contact support to ask about having it enabled.

## About the preview text in the alert

**The preview of the reply is shortened.** Long replies are cut, so an alert that appears to end mid-sentence is displaying correctly.

**Replies that arrived over LinkedIn can show raw formatting marks in the preview**; stray characters around words that were styled in the original. This is current behaviour and affects the preview only. The full, clean text is in the email and in the conversation.

## FAQ

### Who receives the alert?

The owner of the conversation, determined by the mailbox or LinkedIn account the message was sent from. Setting the handler up does not make you the recipient.

### Can I add a second recipient?

Yes. A handler can copy one more address on the email. That address receives the email alone; the notification-centre item and its mobile push stay with the owner.

### Why is the preview cut off or showing odd characters?

Previews are shortened by design, and previews of LinkedIn replies can include formatting marks from the original message. Open the email or the conversation for the full text.

### Does it also stop the sequence?

It stops that contact in that sequence; no further messages go to them there. Other contacts continue as normal, and the sequence itself keeps running.

## Still stuck? Contact Reply support

If these steps didn't solve the problem, the Reply support team can look at your
account directly. Open the [Reply Help Center](https://support.reply.io/) and send
the team a message.

To get an answer faster, include:

- the sequence and which mailbox or LinkedIn account it sends from
- who you expected the alert to reach, and who owns that mailbox
- whether the contact was actually stopped
- the question types set on the handler, and roughly when the reply arrived

Don't send passwords, API keys, or access tokens.

## Related

- [Why was a reply not detected?](/troubleshooting/reply-was-not-detected/) – the handler never saw the reply at all
- [Why did a contact remain active after replying?](/troubleshooting/contact-remained-active-after-reply/)
- [Why can I not find a conversation in the inbox?](/troubleshooting/cannot-find-conversation-in-inbox/)

## Build with Reply

- REST API: [Reply handlers](https://docs.reply.io/api-reference/introduction) – read and change a handler's delivery mode, including stop and notify
- MCP: [docs.reply.io/mcp](https://docs.reply.io/mcp/overview) – the same reply-handler settings are available to an assistant