Documentation · Account
Troubleshooting
Common problems in Ivy Link and how to fix them: payment, sign-in, paused agents, empty Approvals, slow reports, GitHub, Search Console, data and errors.
Find your problem below. Each entry says what you see, why it happens and what to do. If none of it helps, email hello@ivyl.ink from the address you signed up with.
Signing up and signing in
Your payment isn't confirmed on the Start page
After you pay, you come back to app.ivyl.ink/start. Ivy Link signs you in as soon as your payment is recorded, then takes you to onboarding.
| You see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Confirming your payment | Your payment is still being confirmed. This usually takes a few seconds. The page refreshes itself every 2 seconds, for about 30 seconds. | Wait on the page. |
| Welcome to Ivy Link with Stripe hasn’t confirmed your payment yet. Refresh this page in a minute, or email support | Confirmation took longer than 30 seconds. | Refresh the page in a minute. If it still doesn't move, email hello@ivyl.ink. |
| Your payment went through. The email you used already has an Ivy Link account, so sign in with a link sent to it. | You paid with an email that already has an account. | Click Sign in and use an emailed link. See Sign in. |
| Sign in with the email you used at checkout to get to your dashboard. | The automatic sign-in only works once per checkout and for 2 days after signup. This link was already used, is too old, or isn't recognised. | Click Sign in and enter the email you paid with. |
If you closed checkout before paying, you land back on the signup page with Checkout closed before payment, so you haven’t been charged. Your details are still filled in below. Nothing was charged. Click Continue to payment to try again.
Your welcome email, Welcome to Ivy Link: getting your site set up, arrives within about 5 minutes of payment. If it doesn't, check your spam folder.
Paid for a deeper report during onboarding? You go on to the last step once the credits land on your balance. If you closed the payment window, you see Payment canceled. Your report depth is unchanged. Nothing was charged.
Your sign-in link expired or didn't arrive
Ivy Link has no passwords. You sign in at app.ivyl.ink/signin with a link sent to your email. Each link works once and lasts 20 minutes.
If you open an old or used link, you see This link has expired and Sign-in links work once and last 20 minutes. Send yourself a new one.
- Click Send a new link.
- Enter the email you signed up with and click Email me a sign-in link.
- Open the newest email, Sign in to Ivy Link, within 20 minutes, on the device you want to use.
- On the page it opens, click Sign in. You stay signed in on that device for 30 days.
If the email doesn't arrive:
- Check your spam folder.
- Check you used the email you signed up with. The page always says Check your email, whether or not that address has an account, so a typo won't show an error.
- Each address gets at most 5 sign-in emails an hour and 10 a day. If you've asked for many, wait and try later.
- Use the newest link. Older ones may already be used.
Other messages on the sign-in page:
| You see | What to do |
|---|---|
| There have been a lot of sign-in requests from your network. Wait a minute, then try again. | Wait a minute, then send the link again. |
| Ivy Link has sent a lot of sign-in emails in the last hour, so new ones are on hold for a few minutes. | Try again in a few minutes, or email hello@ivyl.ink. |
| Enter an email address like you@company.com. | Check the address for typos. |
The first time you sign in with an emailed link, any sessions you opened before it end, including the automatic sign-in after checkout. If another device suddenly shows the sign-in page, sign in there with a link too.
Agents
Your agents are paused for credits
Agents spend from your prepaid credit balance. When the balance can't cover the next job, they pause. They don't switch to cheaper work to fit.
You see this in a few places:
- Home shows the pill Agents paused, and Needs you has an Add credits item that says Agents are paused until the balance covers the next job.
- Agents shows a notice like Agents are paused: your balance is X credits and this job needs about Y**. They start again when credits are added.**, with an Add credits link. Agents that do paid work show Paused.
- You get an email, Your Ivy Link agents are paused.
To fix it:
- Click Add credits on Agents, Top up on Home, or the item under Needs you. It opens Billing.
- Add credits, or turn on auto top-up so it doesn't happen again. See Billing.
- Agents start again on their own once the balance covers the next job.
The free daily checks keep running while agents are paused for credits. They never use your balance.
Your agents are waiting, but you have credits
Not every pause is about your balance. Read the notice on Agents or the Waiting line on Home.
| You see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Agents are off. Pick a plan in Settings and they start. | Agents are off for this site. Nothing runs, not even the free daily checks. | Click Open Settings, pick a plan and click Start agents. See Turn agents on. |
| The budget is paced for now; more work starts … | Your plan sets how fast agents may spend. They've used what this stretch of the plan allows. The end of the line says when: within the hour, in about N hours or in about N days. | Wait, or pick a bigger plan in Settings. See Budgets. |
| The budget is used for now; this job starts … | The next job costs more than your plan has free right now. The line says when it starts, the same way. | Wait, or pick a bigger plan. |
| This work needs a budget of at least 100 credits a month. | Some work only runs on Climb, Canopy, or a Custom budget of 100 credits a month or more. | Raise your plan if you want this work. |
| Agents are getting to know your site | With no report, agents first crawl your site, test its speed and learn your business. Regular checks and reviews start after that. | Nothing. It finishes on its own. |
| Agent work waits while Ivy Link tops up a data provider. | A short hold on our side. | Nothing. Work resumes on its own. |
| Agent work is paused while Ivy Link checks something. | A short hold on our side. | Nothing. If it lasts more than a day, email hello@ivyl.ink. |
A new site you add starts with its agents off. Each site has its own on/off switch and plan, even though all your sites share one balance. See Sites.
Nothing shows up in Approvals
Approvals lists ideas your agents found that wait for your OK. When it's empty you see Nothing is waiting. New ideas from your agents show up here. Check these causes in order:
- Agents are off. No agents, no ideas. Open Settings and start them.
- Agents are still getting to know your site. If you skipped the report, the first ideas come after that first pass.
- New ideas start without asking. The notice near the top of Approvals says New ideas: and your setting. With Start without asking, it adds Agents start their own ideas, so few wait here. Look on Results instead, or click Change to switch to Ask me first. See Approve work.
- Your report's actions wait on Report. If From your report says Your report’s actions are waiting for your OK, click Pick the ones to start on your report.
- Your SEO expert is checking them (Enterprise). You see Your SEO expert is checking N new ideas. They show up once checked. Ideas the expert drops never reach you.
- Your plan is pacing the reviews. Ideas come from reviews, and a small plan runs fewer of them. See Budgets.
Agents add at most 3 new ideas a day, and keep at most 15 waiting. An idea that sits for 14 days with no changes or new evidence is dropped. It then shows under Dropped with the ideas you dropped, where you can Approve it or Send back. Ideas still with your SEO expert don't expire.
Reports
Your report seems stuck or slow
After Build my report, the Report page shows the build live. You can leave the page. While the report is queued or building, it updates by itself, and it reloads when the status changes. At Opening your report it stops updating, so reload it to see the report. You also get an email, Your report for your domain is ready, when it's done.
| You see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Waiting for a research slot | Your report is queued. It starts as soon as a slot opens. | Nothing. Leave the page if you like. |
| Building your report | Ivy Link is reading your site and its searches. Counts update as each step finishes. Deeper reports take longer. | Nothing. |
| Paused for a quick check | Our team is checking something before the report continues. Nothing more is charged while it's paused. | Nothing. Reload the page later, or wait for the email that your report is ready. |
| Opening your report | All the steps are done and the report is released shortly, but this page doesn't update by itself at this stage. | Wait a minute, then reload the page. You also get an email when the report is ready. |
If the full written report shows Report unavailable, it hasn't been released yet. Its progress is on the Report page.
A report that finishes with gaps is still released. A section called What the report couldn’t cover says which parts are missing. If a finished report can't be released, it shows Paused for a quick check while our team looks at it, and you aren't charged for it.
On Enterprise, your SEO expert checks the report before you see it, so it can stay on Opening your report for longer. Once the expert releases it, reload the page or use the link in the email to see it.
If your report sits on the same state for a long time, email hello@ivyl.ink with your site's address. See Your first report and Report depths.
GitHub and pull requests
A pull request didn't appear on GitHub
Agents only open pull requests for approved work, on a site with GitHub connected and set to send pull requests. Check these:
- GitHub isn't connected. Results says Connect GitHub and Ivy Link opens these changes as pull requests for you. Click Connect GitHub. See Connect GitHub.
- Your site is set to prompts only. Results says Finished work arrives as prompts because your site is set to prompts only. Click Change it, pick Pull requests or Pull requests, merged for you under How finished work reaches your site, and click Save finished work.
- GitHub access was removed. On Settings > Connections, the GitHub card shows Access removed. Click Install on GitHub again and pick your repo.
- The work isn't approved yet. With Ask me first, nothing starts until you approve it on Approvals.
- The work is waiting its turn. On Results, the card under Being worked on says why:
| The card says | What to do |
|---|---|
| Queued for the builder. | Nothing. The pull request comes when the builder gets to it. |
| Agents are off. Pick a plan in Settings and the builder starts on it. | Start your agents in Settings. |
| Your agents are working on it. | Nothing. It's in progress. |
| A pause or pacing message | See "Your agents are waiting, but you have credits" above. |
| Your agent stopped without making a change. Its notes say what it found and what it needs. | Read its notes, then click Move back and approve it again to have it try again. |
| Your agent’s attempt failed. Move it back and approve it again to retry. | Click Move back, then approve it again on Approvals. |
- It was already merged. With Pull requests, merged for you, Ivy Link merges once your repo's checks pass. Look under Merging on its own or Done on Results, or in your repo's closed pull requests. Ivy Link's branches start with
ivylink/.
A pull request won't merge from Results
When you click Merge on Results and it can't merge, Results tells you why:
| You see | What to do |
|---|---|
| Its checks haven’t all passed yet. | Try again once they pass, or merge on GitHub. |
| It conflicts with newer changes on your main branch. | Sort out the conflict on GitHub, then merge it there. |
| Your repo needs a review, or the change brought up to date, before it can merge. | Merge it on GitHub. |
| Ivy Link hasn’t finished checking how this change looks on your site. | Try again later, or merge on GitHub. |
| That pull request isn’t open anymore, or Ivy Link can’t reach your repo. | Check the pull request on GitHub and your GitHub card in Settings. |
| It changed since Ivy Link last checked it. Review it on GitHub. | Review the new version on GitHub, and merge it there if it looks right. |
| Ivy Link can’t merge it while your site is set to prompts only or GitHub isn’t connected. | Merge it on GitHub, or change the setting in Settings > Connections. |
| GitHub didn’t merge it. Try again in a minute, or merge it on GitHub. | Try again in a minute. |
See Ship changes.
Search Console
Search Console won't connect
Connect it from Settings > Connections (the Search Console card), or in onboarding step 1. Ivy Link only accepts the property that matches your site's address. See Connect Search Console.
| You see | What to do |
|---|---|
| We can’t see a Search Console property for your site yet. | You added Ivy Link's address to the wrong property, or not yet. In Search Console, open Users and permissions for your site's property, add the address with Full permission, then click Check access. |
| The Google account you chose can’t see a Search Console property for your site. | Connect again and choose the Google account that owns the property. If the site isn't in Search Console yet, follow Add your site to Search Console on the page. |
| Your site is in Search Console for the Google account you chose, but it isn’t verified yet. | Follow Finish verifying your site: verify it in Search Console, then connect again. |
| Google didn’t give Ivy Link access to Search Console. | Connect again and leave Search Console ticked on Google's screen. |
| Google sign-in was canceled, so nothing changed. | Connect again and finish Google's steps. |
| That sign-in expired or started in another tab. Connect again. | Start again and finish within 15 minutes, in the same tab. |
| That property is already connected to another Ivy Link account. | Email hello@ivyl.ink and we'll sort it out. |
| Search Console didn’t respond. Try again in a minute. | Try again in a minute. |
| Google says Ivy Link no longer has access. Connect with Google again. | Click Connect with Google and pick the account that owns the property. |
| Ivy Link can’t read your property anymore. (card shows Access removed) | Access was removed. Add the address again and click Check access, or Connect with Google again. |
| Ivy Link has Restricted access, so it can read your search data but can’t send Google your sitemaps. | Search data still works. To let Ivy Link send sitemaps, change its permission to Full in Search Console, then click Check access. |
| Search Console connections aren’t open yet. | Upload an export for now. We'll email you when connections open. |
In onboarding, the same problems show shorter messages. Google connected, but Ivy Link found no matching property for your site means you need to add or verify the site in Search Console, then connect again. Search Console was not connected. Try again or skip. means Search Console didn't respond.
Can't connect at all? Upload an export instead: on the Search Console page, open Or upload an export, or in onboarding click Upload CSVs. Without any search data, reports and checks use public ranking data.
Your Search Console export won't upload
The upload takes the zip Search Console downloads, or the CSV files in it, up to 20 files and 10 MB in total. If it's refused, the message says why. The usual fixes:
- In Search Console, open Performance, set Search type to Web, turn Compare off, add no filters, then Export and Download CSV.
- Export the property for your site's own domain.
- Pick a date range that has clicks. The last three months is plenty.
- Upload one export at a time, as the zip Search Console gives you.
Data
Your search numbers aren't updating
- Just connected? You see Your search data is loading. Refresh in a minute or two.
- Using an export? An export is a snapshot. The page says Ivy Link is using the export you uploaded and the date. Connect Search Console to keep the numbers current. The daily search checks and the keyword review need a live connection.
- Numbers look a few days behind? Ivy Link syncs once a day, up to yesterday, and pulls the last week again each time. Google's newest days are often incomplete at first, so they fill in over the next few days.
- Access removed? Reconnect as in "Search Console won't connect" above.
Your dataset or data pages aren't updating
This only applies if your site has a dataset. See Datasets and daily data.
- Data updates are paused. On Settings > Connections, under Permissions, check Data updates. With Paused, Ivy Link keeps collecting but doesn't write to your repo. Pick Automatic and click Save data updates. The next update brings everything in.
- The data is waiting in a pull request. With Pull request, new data only goes live when you merge it. On Results, the card shows New data to merge. Click Merge if it's there, or merge the Data update: pull request on GitHub.
- GitHub access was removed. Data can't reach your repo. Reconnect GitHub in Settings > Connections.
- Publishing failed. The data is still stored, and Ivy Link retries every five minutes with the latest run.
- Nothing changed. A page's Updated date is the day its data last changed, not the day collection ran. A day with no new data keeps the old date. That's expected.
The free daily checks watch for stale or unpublished data. If they find a problem, you see A data check needs attention on Decisions. Your weekly report also has a Data collection section with the latest received and published runs.
Emails
You're getting low balance emails
Ivy Link sends three balance emails, all linking to Billing:
| When it's sent | |
|---|---|
| Your Ivy Link balance is low | Your balance covers about a week of your agents' work at your current plan. |
| Your Ivy Link agents are paused | Your balance can't cover the next job. |
| Auto top-up is off: your card wasn’t charged | An automatic top-up failed, so auto top-up was switched off. |
You get one email per dip. Once your balance recovers, the next dip sends a new one. The low and paused emails only come when your agents try to start work, so you don't get them while agents are off. With auto top-up off, Billing also shows Balance is low when your balance is under $5.
To stop them:
- Add credits on Billing.
- Turn on auto top-up. While it's on and working, balance emails aren't sent.
- If you got Auto top-up is off, add credits or update your card on Billing, then turn auto top-up back on. See Billing.
There's no setting to turn off balance emails. The only email setting is weekly report delivery. See Emails and Credits.
Error pages
| You see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Page not found | That page doesn't exist in your dashboard. | Use the menu to get back. |
| Something went wrong | An error on our side. | Try again in a minute. If it keeps happening, email hello@ivyl.ink. |
| No site yet | Your account has no site. Most pages need one. | Add one at app.ivyl.ink/sites/new (account owner only). See Sites. If you're stuck, email hello@ivyl.ink. |
| Report unavailable | Your written report isn't released yet. | Follow its progress on Report. |
| Action needs review | An action on Decisions or a weekly report didn't go through. The page shows the reason. | Fix what it says, or email us. |
| That didn’t save. Reload and try again. | An approval or change on Approvals or Results didn't save. | Reload the page and try again. |
| This page hasn’t grown yet. | A page that doesn't exist on ivyl.ink. | Go to the home page or start Ivy Link. |
| The Sign in page | You're signed out. | Sign in with an emailed link. |
On signup, Something went wrong on our side. Try again in a minute. means the form didn't go through, and We couldn’t reach the server. Check your connection and try again. means your connection dropped. Nothing is charged until you pay on Stripe.
Last updated October 31, 2026
Something here not match what you see? Email hello@ivyl.ink and we'll fix the page.