# Common questions Almost everything that looks broken in Capable Approval turns out to be one of the answers below. Work down to the one that matches what you are seeing. --- ## The approval option is missing from my page Four reasons, in the order worth checking. 1. **Can you edit the page?** Raising an approval needs edit permission. See [Who can do what](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/who-can-do-what.html). 2. **Has your space turned off user updates?** If so, only space administrators can raise approvals there. 3. **Does your space restrict who can raise approvals?** You need to be on the allowed list. See [Space settings](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/space-settings.html). 4. **Are you using the suite?** In the suite the approval entry only appears on pages that already have one, plus the ways to start a new one. In the standalone app it is always there. --- ## The status says Repair needed The approval record and the copy shown on the page have drifted apart. Click repair. It rewrites the display from the record, and nothing is lost: your reviewers and their answers are safe. You will also see it on approvals old enough to predate integrity checking. Repairing brings them up to date. See [What is recorded](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/what-is-recorded.html). --- ## It has said Syncing for a while For about two minutes after a page is edited, the approval shows In review while everything settles. If it is still saying it after a few minutes, reload the page, then use repair. --- ## The byline says expired but the banner does not Both are right, briefly. | **Surface** | **Shows** | **Because** | | ----------- | --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | The byline | EXPIRED | It works the state out from the date and flips the moment the deadline passes. | | The banner | APPROVED | It waits for the hourly sweep to actually reset the approval. | They agree again within the hour, and the expiry notification arrives with the sweep too. See [Expiry and re-approval](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/expiry-and-re-approval.html). --- ## Somebody never got their notification | **Check** | **Why** | | ------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Can they read the page? | People who cannot read the page are skipped silently. This is the usual answer. | | Have they turned off approval emails? | It is a per-person switch under Capable, Approval, Notifications. | | For Slack, do their Confluence and Slack emails match? | Capable matches people by email. Different addresses means no Slack message, and nobody is told. See [Slack](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/slack.html). | --- ## My approval is stuck and nobody is responding Check whether people have **commented** rather than approved. A comment takes somebody out of the waiting list but counts toward nothing, so an approval where everyone commented will never finish and never expire. See [Approval statuses explained](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/approval-statuses-explained.html). --- ## Two of us see different things on the same approval Responses do not stream between people in real time. Reload to see what your colleague just did. --- ## My Slack buttons did not work | **Message** | **Reason** | | -------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | This page changed since the request was sent | The page was edited, so the review restarted. Answer on the page. | | You can no longer respond to this request | You were removed from the list, or lost access to the page. | | No buttons at all | Either an administrator has not turned on Slack approval actions, or the space requires a code, which Slack cannot collect. | --- ## Bulk approve failed on every page Most likely the space requires an authenticator code. Bulk actions cannot send one, so every page in the batch fails. Respond individually there. See [Sign approvals with a code](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/sign-approvals-with-a-code.html). Otherwise check you are actually a reviewer on the pages you selected. The buttons appear for any selected row, so pages you cannot act on fail individually and are listed at the end. --- ## A new approval is not showing in search Search reads an index that updates a moment after the approval is written. Give it a few seconds and refresh. The page itself is always right immediately. See [Search and reporting](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/search-and-reporting.html). --- ## I lost the phone with my authenticator There are no backup codes. A Confluence administrator clears your enrolment from [Site settings](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/site-settings.html), Auth tokens, and then you set it up again. --- ## Related [Known limitationsThings that are working as designed.](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/known-limitations.html) [How approvals workWhy editing resets a review.](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/how-approvals-work.html) [NotificationsWho hears about what, and when.](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/notifications.html) [Approval statuses explainedEvery label, including the ones that are not statuses.](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/approval-statuses-explained.html) [Expiry and re-approvalWhy the byline and banner disagree.](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/expiry-and-re-approval.html) [What is recordedWhat repair is rebuilding from.](https://help.gocapable.com/approval/what-is-recorded.html) --- _Unstuck. Back to the actual work._