troubleshooting
A volunteer didn't get the reminder email
Work down the list; the first thing that applies is the reason. For the full picture of what every email does and where it's switched on, see Emails & notifications.
The short answer: Reminders are Basic and Pro only, need an email on the sign-up and a date on the spot, and go out about three hours after the confirmation at the earliest. RSVP “no” answers, “I don't need a ride,” plain-form responses, and unpublished sheets never get one. If all of that checks out, it was sent — look in spam.
Check these, in order
- Is the church on Basic or Pro? The Free plan sends confirmations only. The reminder email (and text) starts with Basic. A church that downgraded mid-month keeps reminders until the paid period ends.
- Does the sign-up have an email address? A sheet can make email optional, and a sign-up you keyed in yourself may not have one. No email, no reminder — and no cancel link or calendar invite either. Open the Sign-ups tab and check the person's row.
- Does the spot have a day? A reminder is sent ahead of the slot's own date or, if the slot has none, the sheet's event date. A sheet with no date anywhere has nothing to count down to. Times aren't needed — a date is.
- Is it inside the lead time yet? Each sheet picks when reminders go out: the day before, two days before (the default), or a week before, on its Settings tab. Nothing is sent until that point.
- Did they sign up in the last three hours? Someone who just signed up received a confirmation with the same details and calendar links, so the reminder waits about three hours. If they signed up inside the lead time — the night before, say — the reminder follows that pause, as long as the day is still ahead.
- Is the sheet published? Unpublished and archived sheets send no reminders, even for sign-ups already on them.
- Is it a sign-up that never reminds? An RSVP answered “No,” a carpool answer of “I don't need a ride,” and any response to a plain form (a connect card, a prayer request) have nothing to show up for.
- Spam, promotions, or a typo. Reminders come from the same address as the confirmation. If the confirmation landed in spam, the reminder did too. A misspelled address gets nothing; fix it from the Sign-ups tab rather than signing them up again.
When it goes out
Reminders are checked every hour. Once a sign-up is inside its sheet's lead time, the next hourly run sends it, so a “two days before” reminder lands about 48 hours ahead of the date, give or take an hour. Each person gets one email per sheet per event day, listing every spot they hold that day, with a calendar invite attached.
A volunteer who tells you “I never got it” can also use Find my sign-ups — type the email, get every upcoming sign-up and its links re-sent. That page is linked from the help center's For volunteers section.
Common questions
- Can I resend a reminder, or send one by hand?
- There's no resend button — a reminder goes out once per person per event day. To nudge everyone (or just the people on certain spots) in your own words, use Message volunteers on the Sign-ups tab (Basic and Pro). Each person gets it once, with their own sign-ups listed and a change-or-cancel link.
- Can I change when the reminder goes out?
- Yes. The sheet's Settings tab lets you pick the day before, two days before (the default), or a week before. Changing it affects reminders that haven't been sent yet.
- They signed up for three spots on the same day. Did they get three emails?
- One. Reminders are grouped by person and day: everything they hold on that date goes into a single email with one combined calendar invite. Spots on different days remind separately, each ahead of its own date.
- I moved the date. Will they be reminded again for the new day?
- Yes. Moving a slot's date, re-dating a section, changing the event date, or using Move all dates re-arms the reminder for everyone affected, so it goes out ahead of the new date — whether or not you ticked the box to email them about the change.
- Do admins get a copy of the reminders?
- No. Reminders go only to the volunteer. The Sign-ups tab is the admin's view of who's coming.
- What about text reminders?
- Texts have their own rules: the volunteer must tick the text-reminder box on the public form themselves (admins can never tick it for them) and give a phone number, the church must be on Basic or Pro, and texting has to be live on our side. One text goes out the day before. See the text reminders article for what's sent and how to stop it.
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