Common errors
A practical reference for the error messages you and your members are most likely to see on the Apollos platform — what each one means, how to resolve it, and when to contact Apollos support.
How it works
Most errors fall into a few familiar categories: sign-in, content visibility, chat, giving, notifications, and ChMS sync. Work through the steps for the error you're seeing; if the issue persists after you've checked everything listed, contact Apollos support using the template at the bottom of this page.
Sign-in errors
"Invalid token" / "Unauthorized"
What it means: The member's signed-in session has expired or is no longer valid.
How to resolve:
- Normally the app refreshes the session automatically, including when a member submits a form, and members never see this. Ask the member to try the action again, then close and reopen the app if needed.
- If a member hasn't opened the app in over a year, they'll be asked to sign in again. That's expected.
- If a member just signed in and immediately sees this error, ask them to check that their device's date and time are set automatically.
Contact support if: Members are signed out immediately after signing in, or many members are affected at the same time.
"Unexpected Server Error" after opening giving from the app
What it means: The app-to-web giving handoff could not carry the member's sign-in into the giving page.
How to resolve:
- Ask the donor to reopen the giving link. The handoff now preserves the sign-in needed for giving and verification.
- If they still see the error or a repeated verification prompt, ask them to sign in again or continue signed out, depending on the giving flow.
Contact support if: Multiple donors keep seeing the same error after reopening the link.
"User not found"
What it means: The email address or phone number the member entered doesn't match any account for your church.
How to resolve:
- Confirm the member is signing in to your church's app (not another church's).
- If they're new, they need to create an account first — see Get the app & sign in.
- If they're sure they have an account, check whether they originally signed up with a different email or phone number. You can search for them in Audience.
Contact support if: You can see the member's record in Audience but they still can't sign in with the matching email or phone.
"Invalid OTP"
What it means: The one-time verification code the member entered doesn't match the one that was sent.
How to resolve:
- Ask the member to request a new code and try again — codes expire after a short period and can only be used once.
- Confirm they're entering the code sent to the email or phone number they just used.
- Check for typos — codes are typically 6 digits.
- If codes never arrive, ask the member to check spam folders (email) or confirm their phone can receive texts.
Contact support if: Codes are consistently failing or never arriving for multiple members.
Content errors
Content not appearing in the app
What it means: The most common support question of all — content exists in Admin but members can't see it.
How to resolve: Check each of these in order:
- Publish settings (the most common cause): the item must be active, its publish date must be in the past (or unset), and its expire date must be in the future (or unset). All three must be true.
- Channel placement: is the content in a channel your app actually displays? See Feeds.
- Personalization: is the content tagged for an audience that doesn't include the member checking? See Personalization: tags & audiences.
- Wait a few minutes: recent changes can take up to 5 minutes to appear in the app.
See Content troubleshooting for a full walkthrough.
Contact support if: Publish settings are correct, you've waited 5 minutes, and the content still doesn't appear.
"Content not found"
What it means: The member followed a link to content that no longer exists or isn't available.
How to resolve:
- Check whether the content was deleted or unpublished — old links and bookmarks keep pointing at it.
- If the link came from a notification or shared message, send a fresh link to the current content.
Media not loading (images or video)
What it means: Images or video on a content item are broken or failing to load.
How to resolve:
- Open the content item in Admin and confirm the image or video plays there.
- If the media is hosted on an external service (Vimeo, YouTube, Wistia), check that the video is still available and not set to private. See Media integrations.
- Ask the member to check their internet connection and try again.
Contact support if: Media plays everywhere else but fails in the app, or many items broke at once.
The app recovers from interrupted video progress and skips an invalid Roku hero video instead of leaving the TV screen stuck. If reopening the content still fails, verify the source video and contact support.
A synced video is missing its title, length, or thumbnail
What it means: The hosting provider didn't return details for that one video — usually because it was removed, made private, or its link changed.
How to resolve: Check the video at its source and update or replace the link. The rest of the sync still finishes; only the affected item is skipped. See Media: Vimeo, YouTube, Wistia & more.
A TV app shows a specific message instead of a generic playback error
What it means: The TV apps tell the difference between a video that isn't available, a format they can't play, and a connection problem — and say which one they hit.
How to resolve: Let the message point you: an unavailable or unplayable video is a content problem (check that the link is an HLS stream ending in .m3u8), while a connection message usually clears on the next attempt. See TV apps (Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku).
Video pauses on a TV app and then keeps playing
What it means: Playback hit an error and the TV app retried instead of dropping the viewer back to the menu.
How to resolve: Usually nothing — the viewer sees a brief pause and the video continues. If a video never resumes, confirm the link is an HLS stream ending in .m3u8 and check the hosting provider's status.
Chat errors
"Unable to send message"
What it means: A member's chat message could not be delivered.
How to resolve:
- Check whether the member has been muted or banned by a moderator — see Chat & moderation.
- Ask the member to close and reopen the chat (or the app) and try again.
Contact support if: Multiple members can't send messages at once.
Rejected messages are retried after chat access refreshes. If a message still will not send, reopen the chat and try once more before contacting support.
"Chat not available"
What it means: Chat isn't set up or enabled for your church.
How to resolve: Chat requires configuration on your church's account. Contact Apollos support to confirm chat is enabled and configured for you.
"Cannot invite user"
What it means: A member tried to invite someone to a chat or community and the invitation was blocked.
How to resolve:
- Minor safety: invitations to members under 18 (or with no birth date on file) may be blocked for safety.
- Privacy settings: the invited member's chat preference may be set to "Restricted" or "Following Invites Only," which limits who can contact them.
Contact support if: Neither applies and invitations are still blocked.
Giving errors
"Payment failed"
What it means: The payment was declined.
How to resolve:
- The donor may see a friendly message asking them to try again or contact your church's support email, rather than the bank's raw decline text.
- Ask the donor to try again, then try a different payment method.
- For the specific decline reason, check your church's Stripe dashboard — Stripe records a detailed reason for every decline.
Contact support if: Payments are failing for all donors, not just one.
Donation not appearing in your ChMS
What it means: A gift processed successfully but hasn't shown up in Rock (or your other ChMS) yet.
How to resolve:
- Wait a little while — gifts sync on a schedule, not instantly.
- Check that the donor's app account is matched to a person in your ChMS; gifts can't sync without a linked person.
- See Giving troubleshooting for the full walkthrough.
Contact support if: Gifts consistently aren't syncing for your church.
"Unable to process donation"
What it means: The gift couldn't be started at all — different from a decline, which happens after submitting.
How to resolve: This usually indicates a setup issue with your church's giving configuration. Verify your Stripe account is connected (see Set up giving), then check status.stripe.com for outages. If both look fine, contact Apollos support — this typically needs attention on our side.
Donation amount does not match what the donor confirmed
What it means: The donor may be comparing gross and net settlement, or there may be a mismatch in what was entered versus what was charged.
How to resolve: Check Giving troubleshooting. App-to-web giving and wallet giving now lock the confirmed amount, including comma-formatted amounts, so the charge should match the amount the donor confirmed. App-to-web giving also keeps the selected fund and campus attached when the donor finishes with a wallet.
A donor is asked to verify again after opening giving from the app
What it means: The donor's sign-in didn't carry from the app into the giving page, so the page treated them as a new visitor.
How to resolve: Ask them to reopen the giving link — the hand-off carries their sign-in, so they shouldn't need a new code. If they're asked again, they can sign in on the giving page or continue without signing in, depending on your giving setup.
Contact support if: Donors are asked to verify every time they open giving from the app.
The app reopens a gift the donor already gave
What it means: A gift that was finished on the web didn't get cleared in the app, so the app returned the donor to a gift that's already complete.
How to resolve: This clears itself once the gift completes, so donors should land back in the app normally. If a donor keeps seeing a finished gift reappear, have them force close and reopen the app, and check Giving → Transactions to confirm they weren't charged twice.
Notification errors
A member isn't receiving push notifications
What it means: Notifications were sent but a member's device isn't showing them.
How to resolve: Check each of these:
- Device permissions: has the member allowed notifications for the app in their phone's Settings?
- In-app preferences: has the member enabled that notification type in the app? See Manage notification preferences.
- Do Not Disturb: is the member's phone in Do Not Disturb or Focus mode?
- Fresh install: ask the member to open the app at least once after installing — devices register for notifications on first launch.
See Push notifications & messaging for a detailed checklist.
Contact support if: Permissions and preferences are all enabled but notifications still don't arrive.
"Notification send failed"
What it means: A notification you sent from Admin failed to go out.
How to resolve: Try sending again after a few minutes. If sends keep failing, contact Apollos support — this usually indicates a configuration issue with your church's notification service that needs attention on our side.
Integration errors
"Rock API connection failed"
What it means: Apollos cannot reach your church's Rock RMS server.
How to resolve:
- Confirm your Rock server is up — can you open it in a browser?
- Check whether your Rock API key was regenerated or expired on the Rock side; if so, the integration needs the new key.
- Check whether your Rock server has IP restrictions or a firewall that might be blocking Apollos.
See Rock RMS for setup details.
Contact support if: Rock is up and the key is valid but the connection still fails.
"Planning Center sync failed"
What it means: The connection between Apollos and Planning Center needs to be re-authorized.
How to resolve:
- Re-authenticate the Planning Center integration — see Planning Center.
- Confirm your Planning Center account is active and the integration hasn't been revoked from the Planning Center side.
Contact support if: Re-authenticating doesn't resolve it, or syncs keep failing afterward.
"This name is already taken. Please try a different name."
What it means: The organization profile name would create a church address that is already used.
How to resolve: Try a more specific church name in the Organization Profile.
Sync not running or data out of date
What it means: Data from your ChMS isn't arriving in Apollos (or vice versa).
How to resolve:
- Check the sync status in Admin — see How data sync works.
- Most syncs run on a schedule; recent ChMS changes may simply not have synced yet.
- Failed syncs retry automatically a few times before giving up.
Contact support if: Syncs have been failing repeatedly or data has been stale for more than a day.
General patterns
Changes not showing up right away
Changes in Admin — content edits, configuration changes, new items — can take up to 5 minutes to appear in the app while caches refresh. Wait 5 minutes and check again before troubleshooting further.
Everything broken for one member, fine for everyone else
Ask the member to update the app, then sign out and back in. Most single-member issues clear with a fresh session. See App troubleshooting basics.
A branded error page appears in Admin
What it means: Something went wrong loading Admin. Instead of a blank screen, Apollos shows an error page with your church's branding and a way back.
How to resolve: Reload the page and try again. If it keeps happening, note what you were doing and contact Apollos support.
When to contact Apollos support
Contact support right away for:
- Sign-in failures affecting many members at once
- Payments succeeding but never appearing in reports or your ChMS
- Chat down for everyone at your church
- Data appearing for the wrong church, or duplicate records multiplying
- Significant slowness across the whole app
What to include when you contact support
The more of this you include, the faster we can help:
Issue: [Brief description of the problem]
Church: [Your church name]
Member affected: [Name or email, if known]
Steps to reproduce: [What the member was doing when the error occurred]
Error message: [Exact error text, if available]
Time occurred: [When it happened, with timezone]
Already checked: [What you've verified from the guides above]Example:
Issue: Donations not syncing to Rock RMS for the past 24 hours
Church: Highridge Church
Member affected: All donors
Steps to reproduce: Complete a gift in the app — it processes but never appears in Rock
Error message: None visible to donors
Time occurred: Started 2/26 around 3:00 PM EST
Already checked: Rock server is up and reachable in a browser; gifts show in our Stripe
dashboard; sync status page shows repeated failures since 2/26.