How Sequence Re-entry Works (Advanced)

This article explains the mechanics behind the two advanced sequence toggles and why a contact may or may not re-enter a sequence. It's aimed at users who are building complex automations, diagnosing unexpected behavior, or planning to re-engage a large list of past contacts.

If you just want to know what the toggles do in plain terms, start with Create/Edit Campaign Sequence.

The core concept: sequences have a permanent internal ID

Every sequence you create in Campaign Refinery is assigned a unique internal ID when it's first built. This ID is the true identity of the sequence — not its name, not its contents, not the tag that triggers it.

The internal ID stays the same when you:

• Rename the sequence
• Add, remove, reorder, or edit emails inside it
• Change delay timers or other event settings
• Change which tag or automation starts the sequence
• Turn the sequence on or off

The internal ID changes (i.e., you get a genuinely new sequence) only when you:

• Build a brand new sequence from scratch
• Clone an existing sequence (the clone gets its own new ID)

This matters because every contact's "has this person already been through this sequence?" status is recorded against the internal ID. Renaming or editing a sequence does not give you a clean slate.

What "already run" means, and when contacts are locked out

When a contact enters a sequence, Campaign Refinery records that event against the sequence's internal ID. By default:

• A contact can enter a given sequence exactly once.
• Any subsequent trigger that attempts to start the same sequence for that contact is silently ignored.
• This holds true regardless of whether the contact completed the sequence, was halted mid-way, or only received the first event.

This default is safe: it prevents accidental duplicate sends when tags get re-applied, integrations double-fire, or automations overlap. It becomes a problem only when you genuinely want contacts to go through the sequence again.

The two toggles in detail

Both toggles live in the sequence edit panel and are off by default.

Toggle 1: Sequence may be run multiple times

Off (default): single-entry behavior as described above. Each contact enters at most once, ever.

On: a contact who has completed the sequence becomes eligible to enter it again the next time the start condition is met. When they re-enter, they start from the first event and move through the entire sequence again, end to end.

Important nuances when this toggle is on:

• Re-entry applies to contacts who have completed the sequence. By itself, this toggle does not define what happens to contacts still mid-sequence — that's what Toggle 2 is for.
• Each re-entry is a fresh run. The contact will receive every email in the sequence again. There is no automatic "don't send emails this contact already received" filter.
• If you do not want duplicates of specific emails, the cleanest pattern is to branch on a tag inside the sequence that gets added the first time around.

Toggle 2: Reset pending scheduled events, by skipping them, when allowing to run multiple times

This toggle is only meaningful when Toggle 1 is on. It governs what happens when a contact is re-triggered while they are still inside the sequence — for example, they are currently on email 3 of 10, with emails 4 through 10 already scheduled.

Off (default): the re-trigger is ignored while the contact is still mid-sequence. The existing run continues uninterrupted and completes normally. (Re-entry can happen later, after the contact finishes their current run, per Toggle 1.)

On: the contact's pending scheduled events from their current run are cancelled (skipped), and the sequence restarts from the beginning. All downstream events are re-generated fresh from event one.

Common configurations

Checking a contact's sequence history

You can verify which sequences and campaigns a specific contact is part of (or has been part of) by opening their contact profile. This is the fastest way to diagnose whether a contact is being blocked by the single-entry rule.

One exception: if a contact was deleted from the account at some point and later recreated, through any method, including re-subscribing, CSV import, API, or form submission, their historical sequence participation will not appear on the new contact record. From Campaign Refinery's perspective, the recreated contact is a brand-new person with no history.

This has a practical implication: a recreated contact is not locked out of sequences their previous incarnation had already been through, because there's no history tying them to those sequences.

Brief troubleshooting: "My sequence used to work, but now most contacts aren't receiving it"

If a sequence worked in the past but now appears to skip most contacts, walk through these checks in order:

1. Has the sequence been edited since it was first built? Added emails, reordered events, changed triggers? If yes, remember that edits preserve the internal ID — every contact who went through any earlier version is still flagged as "already run."
2. Is "Sequence may be run multiple times" turned on? If it's off (the default), every contact who ever entered this sequence — in any prior version — is permanently excluded from re-entering.
3. Are the contacts who are receiving the sequence all new / recent? If the ones receiving it are new and the ones being skipped are older, the single-entry lock is almost certainly the cause, not a trigger or tagging problem.
4. Spot-check a skipped contact's profile. If you see the sequence listed in their history, they are locked out by default. If you don't see it and you expected to, the issue is upstream (the trigger isn't firing) rather than re-entry.

Options

If the single-entry lock is the cause and you want past contacts to receive the sequence, there are two approaches:

• Enable re-entry on the existing sequence: turn on Toggle 1 in the sequence settings. Eligible contacts will re-enter from step one the next time the start condition is met. Toggle 2 controls what happens for contacts still mid-sequence at the time of the trigger.
• Use a new sequence: build a new sequence from scratch, or clone the existing one. A clone receives its own internal ID, so no contacts are flagged as "already run" against it. Point your automation or trigger at the new sequence.

If you are planning to re-enroll a large number of dormant contacts, please ramp volume up gradually rather than enrolling everyone at once. A sudden spike can damage your sending reputation. Contact support if you'd like help planning the rollout.