Skip to main content
Skip to article
  • Qualtrics Platform
    Qualtrics Platform
  • Customer Journey Optimizer
    Customer Journey Optimizer
  • XM Discover
    XM Discover
  • Qualtrics Social Connect
    Qualtrics Social Connect

Managing Automations

Was this helpful?


This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The feedback you submit here is used only to help improve this page.

That’s great! Thank you for your feedback!

Thank you for your feedback!

About Managing Automations

With contact import automations and survey distribution automations, you can create, configure, update, test, and review your own automation jobs, which streamlines your contact creation and survey distribution. Edit your existing automations, delete them, enable them, or disable them in the Automations tab of your Directories page.

clicking the navigation menu in the top right and choosing Directories

Tab that says Automations between Distributions and Directory Settings

Qtip: You will only see automations you have created, not all the automations in the brand.

Edit Existing Automations

You can change the setup of any of your automations by clicking the dropdown and selecting Edit Automation. Use the search bar to search for an automation by name or ID.

Three dots dropdown on automation on main page has Edit automation option first

Qtip: You can also do this by clicking into the automation and clicking the blue Edit Automation button.

Blue edit automation button on upper-right inside the automation

Clicking Edit Automation will take you back to a page where you can change the different steps of the automation by selecting Edit next to a given step in the righthand menu.

Picture of an automation, steps listed to right with edit next to each one

Start Manual Run

Start manual run

The option Start Manual Run will allow you to run an additional automation outside the current schedule.

Qtip: You cannot start a manual run of a distribution automation linked to a contact import automation. Instead, start a manual run on the contact import automation to kick off an import and distribution.
Qtip: You can start a manual run of a paused automation to perform a test run. If a distribution automation is linked to a contact automation and you start a manual run on the contact automation, it will also run the distribution automation, even if both automations are paused.
Example: Let’s say the contact import automation runs at 9am as scheduled, but you forgot to upload your contact file in the assigned folder before then. You can upload your file and choose Start Manual Run to run the automation once more and get the file imported.

Pause and Resume Automations

The option you see will vary depending on whether your automation is active or inactive. Pause Automation allows you to temporarily pause the automation. You can then resume the automation whenever you desire by selecting Resume Automation.

Green active icon left. Right dropdown has pause option highlighted

Gray inactive to left. Right dropdown has resume option

Qtip: If a distribution automation is linked to a contact automation, you only need to pause the contact automation to pause both.
Qtip: If you pause a distribution automation linked to a contact automation, the distribution automation will still attempt to run after the contact automation completes. If the contact automation run was a manual run, the distribution automation will run successfully. If the contact automation run was a scheduled run, the distribution automation will fail with the message, “Automation is not active and cannot be run.”

Rename Automation

By clicking the dropdown and selecting Rename Automation, you can rename your automation.

Third option in dropdown is Rename Automation

Delete Automation

By clicking the dropdown and selecting Delete Automation, you can delete your automation.

Delete Automation option is last in dropdown

Warning: Once you delete an automation, it is gone permanently! Do not delete automations unless you are absolutely sure you want to get rid of them!
Qtip: Looking to temporarily disable an automation? Try pausing it instead by clicking on the automation, clicking on the Run Options dropdown, and selecting Pause Automation.
A picture of the run options inside an automation, at the top, and the option to pause the automation.

Managing Automation Recipients & Schedules

Click the name of an automation or select View Run History from the dropdown to view when it has run in the past. From this page, you can also pause and resume automations.

Name of the past automation is highlighted

Past Automations

Once automations have run, they will be listed here with information about the time they began and ended, how many contacts were imported or invited (based on whether it is a contact automation or distribution automation), the duration, and the status.

Qtip: You can click on an automation run in the table to get more details regarding the run’s outcome.

The status can either be success or failure. Failures are generally due to incorrect settings, such as the wrong SFTP server being referenced, incorrect username and password, and so on. You can click on a run in the table to see more details regarding the specific failure and how to resolve it. You can click Retry Run to manually run the automation. If this button is gray, there are no files for the automation to upload.

To the left a run that has failed is clicked, turning blue and opening a menu of run details to the right. IDs are given, and the errors AKA causes of failure are listed

Grouped runs are automation runs that happened in the same 24 hour period.

You can change the order of your past automations using the Sort By dropdown on the upper-left.

Automations edit page

Processed Files

When you click on a contact import automation conducted in the past, you can click View File to see the files that were imported during this automation.

Qtip: Data is retained for 30 days in the Qualtrics File Service. During this period, files at rest are encrypted until they are deleted once the period passes.

Selected contact import. To the right in the menu at the bottom is a blue view file link

Run Options

Run Options dropdown reveals pause automation and start manual run options

The Run Options button in the upper-right has the same two options as described above: Pause / Resume Automation, and Start Manual Run.

Add Recipients

Would you like team members to be notified whenever this automation takes place? You can send a summary of the automation each time it is completed while setting up your automation with the Run Summary Recipients step. You may edit your recipients at any time.

choosing who should receive the run report

  1. While editing your automation, go to Run Summary Recipients.
  2. Type the email address of the recipient.
  3. Click Add Recipient Email or the plus sign ( + ) to add another recipient.
  4. If you do not want to send these emails a report when there wasn’t any work done to report on, check the box.
    Qtip: If this box is checked, failure notifications will still send.
  5. Click Continue to continue editing the automation or Save and finish later to save your changes.
Qtip: Press the minus sign ( – ) next to a recipient’s email to remove them.
Example: Below is an example of what a Failed Run Automation email may look like. In this example, the failure occurred because the user no longer has access to the SFTP server where the files are located. If you have questions about why a run failed, log into the Customer Success Hub to contact support. Remember to include the information included in the email.
Image of an example of a failed run email with suggestions of how to resolve the failure

Return to Automations

Click the X in the upper-right to return to the main page of the Automations tab.

Gray X in upper-right, before side menu

Qtip: You can also click the Automations tab itself to return to its main page.