Most of the time Sam says it cannot do something, nothing is broken. A tool it wanted to use is either not connected, no longer authorised, or was switched off. All of those look the same from the chat, and all of them are fixed in the same place.
- →Select Connect your tools at the bottom of the left sidebar.
- →Open the Connected tab and find the tool.
- →Select Test on the connection. If it answers, the connection is fine and the problem is something else.
- →If it does not answer, or the tool is not listed at all, the sections below tell you which case you are in.
Sam talks about a tool you never connected
This is by far the most common one. Sam will happily propose pulling your Meta ad numbers or your Shopify orders before it has checked whether those accounts are actually attached. It is being optimistic, not reporting a fault.
Two ways out. Connect the tool — see Connect a tool to Sam — or tell Sam to use something you have already connected instead. It will work with what it can actually reach if you point it there.
Connect before you ask, not after. Every specialist's Settings tab shows a Connected apps count — a quick way to see what that specialist can actually get to before you give it a job.
It worked before and stopped on its own
Connections do not last forever. Access from an ad or social platform is granted for a period and then has to be renewed — Meta is around 60 days. Nothing went wrong; the clock ran out.
Reconnect the tool and it picks up where it left off. Nothing Sam already learned from that platform is lost.
Someone changed a password, or a security review revoked access
Changing your password on the connected platform, or removing third-party apps during a security clean-up, cuts Sam off. So does an admin removing your access to the ad account or Page the connection was pointed at.
Sam detects this and marks the connection rather than failing silently. Reconnect to fix it. If you have just changed a password anywhere, reconnecting straight away saves you finding out when a scheduled report comes back empty.
The connection was disconnected
Someone selected Disconnect, on your side or on the platform's. Meta and Instagram are the two this happens to most. Reconnect from the integrations list.
The connection never finished
If you start connecting a tool, get sent to the platform to approve it, and close the window before finishing, the connection sits half-made. It will not appear as connected and Sam cannot use it.
Start it again and follow it all the way to the end, including any screens the platform shows after you sign in. Meta in particular asks three separate approval questions after the sign-in step.
It says Connected, but every request is refused
This is the one that wastes the most time, because nothing looks wrong. The connection is listed, it may even pass Test, and yet every real request comes back refused. The connection succeeded; the permissions attached to it did not cover what Sam needs.
It happens two ways:
- →You signed in, but approved less than Sam asked for. Platforms let you narrow what you grant — unticking a permission, picking current only instead of all current and future, or selecting some accounts and not others. Meta asks three separate approval questions after the sign-in, and it is easy to limit one of them without noticing.
- →You pasted a key or token generated without the right permissions. A token missing a scope registers perfectly and then fails on every call that needs it. Nothing warns you at the point you paste it in.
There is a third version worth knowing about: the person who authorised the connection may not have the access themselves. Permissions on a token do nothing if the account that issued it cannot reach the ad account or Page in question. If a colleague connected it, check they have admin access to the thing Sam is being asked to work on.
How to fix it. Reconnect and approve everything the platform offers, choosing all current and future where it asks — narrowing the grant is what causes this, and a narrow grant also breaks later when you add a new account or Page. If the tool connects with a key rather than a sign-in, regenerate the key with the required permissions and paste the new one in.
A Meta token without ads_read and ads_management will connect and then fail on every ad request. You can confirm what a token actually carries in Meta’s Access Token Debugger at developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/accesstoken — it lists every permission on the token and takes about five seconds. Connect your Meta ad account has the full detail, including which permissions to grant and how to sign in rather than maintain a token at all.
Sam asked for something the platform refused
Occasionally the connection is fine and the request is not. The usual causes are a date range longer than the platform allows for one request — 90 days is a common cap on ad data — or a spreadsheet range that does not exist.
Narrow the ask and try again: a shorter period, or a specific sheet and range. This one is partly on us, and the fewer times you have to do it the better — if it keeps happening on the same request, tell us.
- →Connect first, ask second. Sam cannot tell you what it is missing until it tries.
- →Test after connecting, not the first time an automation runs.
- →Reconnect after any password change on a connected platform.
- →Approve everything the platform offers when connecting, and pick all current and future where you are asked. A partial grant looks identical to a working connection until something fails.
- →Check the connection before blaming the automation. A report that arrives empty is usually a connection, not the schedule — see Pause, edit, or stop any automation for its run history.
- →Keep ad-data requests inside 90 days unless you specifically need more, then ask for it in chunks.
When it really is a fault
Reconnect once. If a tool will not connect at all, connects and then immediately fails its own Test, or fails the same way twice in a row, that is worth reporting rather than retrying.
Include the tool, what you asked Sam to do, and a screenshot of the chat where it failed. That is enough to find it in the logs; without it we are guessing at which of your chats to look in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does reconnecting lose what Sam already learned?
No. Sam keeps what it pulled before. Reconnecting restores access going forward.
Why does Sam offer to do things it cannot do?
It works out what would help before it checks what it can reach. We would rather it proposed the right plan and told you what is missing than quietly did less.
It says Connected but nothing works. What now?
The permissions granted probably do not cover what Sam is doing. Reconnect and approve everything, or regenerate the key with the right permissions. For Meta, check the token in Meta’s Access Token Debugger first.
How do I know which tools a specialist can use?
Open that specialist, go to Settings, and look at Connected apps. See Set up how a specialist works.
Do I have to reconnect every 60 days forever?
Only for platforms that expire access that way. Signing in again is a few seconds, and Sam flags the connection rather than letting you find out from an empty report.
A scheduled report arrived empty. Is that this?
Usually, yes. Check the connection first, then the automation's run history.