Reconnecting Instagram when the connection breaks

A Dartzo connection is a permission slip that Instagram gave us when you pressed Allow. Like any permission slip it can run out, or Instagram can cancel it. When that happens nothing can send for the account until you approve again. The good news is that approving again is quick, and it doesn’t cost you anything you’ve built.

Why a connection stops working

You rarely meet the first row. Instagram only lets us renew a connection while it’s still valid, so Dartzo checks every account once a day and renews any whose connection is within 15 days of running out. A healthy account that keeps being checked renews itself indefinitely, with no action from you. You only see an expiry if the renewal itself keeps failing, which is why we tell you about it.

Password changes and removing Dartzo are the common ones. Instagram treats either as “this person doesn’t want that permission any more” and cancels it immediately, so every send after that is refused as token_invalid. The full wording of each reason is in the Error reference.

How the product tells you

• Connections page: each account has a badge — Token healthy, Token expiring or Reconnect needed. When the badge isn’t healthy it also shows a date: “Expires 12 Nov 2026. Reconnect before then and nothing stops,” or “Expired 12 Nov 2026 — reconnect to start sending again.”
• Dashboard: if Dartzo can’t load your Instagram data, a line says “Couldn’t load your Instagram data — the access token may have expired,” with a Reconnect link.
• Email: when a renewal fails we send a “reconnect your Instagram” email. You get one when the connection is close to expiring and one if it actually expires, not a daily nag.
• Phone app: the app has a push notification called Account paused or disconnected. It’s a switch under Settings in the app. See Notifications.
• Queue: the plainest evidence. A failed · token_invalid row is a DM Instagram refused because the connection is no longer valid.

How to reconnect

1. 1
   Open Connections

   In Dartzo go to Settings → Connections. Each connected account is a card with its handle. In the phone app, Settings → Instagram opens the connect screen.
2. 2
   Press Reconnect on that account

   It runs the same approval screen you saw the first time. If your browser is already signed in to Instagram you go straight to Allow; if not, Instagram asks for your username and password first. If you’re on a phone, open the page in Safari or Chrome rather than inside Instagram’s built-in browser. Connecting your Instagram account explains why.
3. 3
   Sign in as the same account

   Check the handle on Instagram’s screen matches the card you pressed Reconnect on. Reconnecting a different account creates a separate connection and leaves the broken one broken.
4. 4
   Look for the confirmation

   You land on your dashboard with a green line: “Instagram reconnected — @yourhandle is back on. Comments come in, DMs go out.” The badge on Connections goes back to Token healthy.

What reconnecting keeps

Dartzo saves connections by Instagram handle. When you reconnect, the account you already have is updated in place with a fresh permission, rather than replaced by a new one. That’s why the dashboard says “reconnected” and not “connected,” and why it doesn’t show you the first-time setup card.

• Kept: your automations, keywords and message text, your leads, your delivery history and Queue, and your plan.
• Replaced: only the stored permission itself, which is saved encrypted.
• Lifted: if Dartzo had stopped sending because Instagram refused on permissions, a successful reconnect lifts that stop and sending resumes.
• Not lifted: if an account was paused by our safety check for a high share of refused sends, reconnecting doesn’t clear it. That pause is a judgement about sending behaviour, not about the connection. See Troubleshooting.

What about DMs that failed while it was broken?

Every comment that matched while the connection was broken has a row in your Queue with the reason beside it, so you can see exactly which people were affected. A DM can only be sent while Instagram still allows a reply to that comment, and the windows are in Limits and windows. The sooner you reconnect, the more of those comments are still inside the window.