Why is my SendFox account paused or restricted?

A paused or restricted SendFox account means sending is off but nothing is deleted. Older lifetime deals are paused when their sending outgrows what they paid for.

Did you pause your own plan? That's a different thing and nothing is wrong. A billing pause is something you choose from Settings → Plan & billing for up to three months, and you can end it whenever you like with Resume now — see pause instead of cancelling. This article is about the other kind: an account we have paused or restricted, which you did not ask for.

Start with your Account status page

Every affected account has a single page that explains its exact situation. While your account is paused or restricted, the account menu in the top-right corner shows Account status in place of Settings. At any stage you can also go straight to sendfox.com/account/status.

That page shows which state your account is in, what's required to clear it, and a form to message our support team with your account details attached automatically. It's the source of truth for your account — the guidance below explains what you'll see there.

Why can a Lifetime account be paused?

The older AppSumo lifetime deals were sold with uncapped sending, and for a long time that's exactly how they worked. That is no longer the case. A legacy Lifetime account whose total sending has grown past what its one-time purchase covers now needs a Pro subscription to keep sending.

There is no single published number, because the threshold isn't the same for every account — it's set by how much you paid and how many emails you've sent since. Your Account status page shows your own position and the plan we recommend.

Who this applies to

This only applies to paid legacy Lifetime accounts. Specifically, it does not apply to:

• Free accounts — the Free plan has its own contact and monthly send limits and is not part of this at all.
• The $29 Lifetime plan — it comes with its own fixed send pool instead. If you hold a $29 Lifetime alongside an older lifetime deal, this doesn't apply while your $29 send pool still has emails left. See How does the SendFox $29 Lifetime send pool work?
• Accounts sending lightly — if your sending over the last 30 days (automation emails count too) is within the Free plan's monthly send allowance (3,000 emails), your account is never paused for this, no matter how long you've had it. Dormant and low-volume Lifetime accounts are unaffected.

The stages

Nothing happens without warning. You'll always get an email and an in-app notice before anything stops.

1. Heads up. If your recent sending puts you on track to reach the limit, we email you and show a note on your Account status page. Nothing changes at this stage — it's there so you can plan.
2. Action needed — 30 days. Once you reach the limit, you get a 30-day window in which your account keeps working normally. You'll see a banner across the app with the date and a Choose your plan button, and your Plan & billing page marks the recommended plan with a Recommended for you badge. We email you again a week before the date and the day before.
3. Paused. If the 30 days pass without a qualifying Pro subscription, sending stops. You can still view and export your dashboard, email results, contacts and lists, and your billing pages stay open. While it stays paused, we email you 7, 14 and 30 days in with how to start sending again.
4. If you've gone quiet. If the date passes while your sending over the last 30 days (automation emails included) is within the Free plan's allowance, your account isn't paused. It stays in Action needed — the page reads Choose a Pro plan to send more than 3,000 emails every 30 days — and you can keep sending up to 3,000 emails in any 30-day period. Send more than that and the account pauses at the next check.

If you're on the older Empire plan

"Empire Add-On" is the previous name of SendFox's monthly plan. If you pay for a legacy monthly plan (the Empire Add-On) that covers what your sending costs, your account isn't affected. If your sending grows beyond that, you'll see the notice with an Upgrade your plan button. The recommended Pro tier replaces your Empire plan rather than adding to it, so you only ever pay for one, and the Pro tiers include the same monthly-plan features Empire did.

If the recommended tier looks wrong for how much you actually send, message the team from your Account status page before the date on your notice rather than after.

Why this changed

The cost of actually delivering email has grown a great deal over the years, and older lifetime deals were sold with no ceiling on sending at all. Asking the heaviest-sending accounts to move to a Pro plan is what keeps SendFox sustainable — and keeps it being improved — rather than withdrawing the plans people already bought.

Your lifetime purchase is not revoked: you keep the deal, your contacts, your lists, and your history. What changed is that sending beyond what that one-time purchase covers now needs a subscription.

What still works while my account is paused?

A paused account is not closed, and nothing is deleted. You keep access to your data so that you can keep working with it — or take it elsewhere. Your Account status page has a Your data is still here section with Export contacts and Export emails buttons.

Still available:

• Your dashboard, and the results for every email you've sent — opens, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes
• Your contacts, lists, and contact activity
• CSV export of your contacts, your lists, and your email results
• Deleting contacts, unsubscribing contacts, and removing inactive contacts
• Your billing pages, so you can choose a plan and update your card
• For your subscribers: unsubscribe links and confirmation links keep working normally.

Paused until you subscribe:

• Sending anything — one-off emails, automations, and RSS-driven emails
• Contact imports, including CSV, Google, Mailchimp, and Kit imports. An import already in progress when the account pauses will fail and need to be run again afterwards.
• Resubscribing contacts who have unsubscribed
• Your Smart Pages and forms. While the account is paused, your Smart Pages and hosted form pages show a “not found” page and forms embedded on your website don't appear, so no one new can sign up — it's worth acting before this stage if you rely on them.
• Integrations and the API. API requests return a 403 error with the code account_restricted.
• Changing your account settings

When an account pauses, SendFox also turns off your active automations, unschedules your scheduled emails, disables your RSS feeds, and stops any email that was mid-send at the time. Your Account status page lists how many of each were affected.

Your monthly subscription, if you have one, is not cancelled.

How do I start sending again?

1. Open Account status from the account menu.
2. Review the recommended plan. It's based on your contact count and how much you sent in the 30 days before the date shown on the card.
3. Choose the plan and complete checkout.
4. Wait for confirmation. We verify the subscription with our payment provider before restoring the account — while it's confirming, the page checks again every 5 seconds for up to a minute. If you close the tab, come back to Account status and it will show the confirmed state once it's done.
5. Review your automations, scheduled emails, and RSS feeds. They are not switched back on automatically.

Which Pro tier do I need?

Checkout starts you on at least the recommended plan. Once you're on Pro, any Pro plan whose contact limit covers your current contacts keeps your account active. The recommendation is set by your own contacts and recent sending, and it's recalculated as they change. If you already pay for Pro and your contacts later outgrow your plan, you aren't paused straight away: once you're sending more than the Free allowance, you get a new notice and 30 days to move up. If the recommendation rises while a 30-day window is already running, the notice names the new plan but the date stays the same. If the recommendation is Enterprise, it's set up with our team rather than through checkout; use the support form on your Account status page.

For a breakdown of what each plan includes, see Which SendFox Pro tier should I choose? and What features do I get with SendFox Pro?.

Before you resume sending

Because automations, scheduled emails, and RSS feeds stay off after your account is restored, turn back on only what you still want running, and check that any schedule set weeks ago still makes sense. If one of your emails was interrupted mid-send, open its results before sending it again so you can see who already received it and avoid sending a duplicate.

If support has put you on a complimentary Pro plan

Our team can give an account a Pro plan at no charge for a set period while you decide what to do. If that applies to you, your Account status page shows your tier and its end date, along with a line such as "You're on a complimentary Pro 2 plan and there's nothing to pay right now."

While it runs, your account behaves exactly like a paid plan at that tier: you get the tier's contact limit and monthly sending allowance, sending is on, and SendFox stops asking you to choose a plan — no banner, no reminder emails, no pause. If your account was already paused when the plan was applied, it is switched back on straight away.

One thing to check: as with any restart, your automations, scheduled emails, and RSS feeds stay switched off and need to be turned back on once you have reviewed them.

What happens when my complimentary plan ends?

We email you 15 days before the end date to tell you exactly what will happen, naming the date and the plan (and the price, if we’ll charge your card). On the day itself:

• If you have a card on file, we start your subscription at that tier and your account keeps sending without a break. You can switch plans or cancel at any point, before or after.
• If you don't, sending pauses on that date if you’ve sent more than 3,000 emails in the last 30 days. Your contacts, campaigns, and stats all stay exactly where they are, and choosing a plan restores sending right away.
• If you subscribe on your own beforehand, that simply takes over — the complimentary plan is closed out and you are not charged twice.

A complimentary plan pauses the clock; it does not remove the underlying requirement. When it ends, whatever plan your sending volume calls for is what applies.

These plans are arranged by our team — there is no button to request one. If you think your situation warrants it, reply from your Account status page and ask.

Accounts restricted for other reasons

Not every restriction is about sending volume. An account can also be placed in a read-only state by our team. The Account status page will say Sending is disabled rather than showing a plan recommendation.

In this state you can still view your dashboard, review your email results, export your contacts and emails, and remove contacts. Sending, imports, integrations, and account changes are unavailable, and your Settings menu is reduced to Account status and a read-only Profile page. If you pay for a monthly plan, a restriction of this kind also cancels that subscription straight away.

Choosing a plan will not lift this kind of restriction. Use the support form on the Account status page — it reaches our team with your account details attached, and it's the fastest way to get the review moving.

Troubleshooting

I subscribed, but my account is still paused

• Give it a moment. We restore the account only after the subscription is confirmed with our payment provider. The Account status page refreshes itself while that's happening, and re-checks on its own shortly afterwards.
• Check that the payment actually completed. A card that needs extra verification leaves the subscription unfinished, which doesn't clear the requirement.
• Make sure your Pro plan's contact limit covers your current contact count.
• Still seeing the notice after subscribing? If you have more contacts than your plan allows, move up to a plan that covers them, or remove contacts. Your Account status page shows "Your Pro plan is confirmed" once you're covered.
• If a renewal payment fails, SendFox emails you that day and again 7 days later, and your account keeps sending for 14 days from that first email. Open Plan & billing and click Update payment to pay with a working card; saving a new card on its own doesn’t pay the overdue invoice. If the 14 days pass, sending pauses and your Account status page shows “Your payment didn’t go through” until the payment goes through.
• If it's still paused well after payment, message us from the Account status page.

My forms stopped collecting signups

• A paused account doesn't accept new contacts: your Smart Pages and hosted form pages show a “not found” page, and a form embedded on your own website doesn't appear.
• Restore the account first, then submit a test entry to confirm your form is capturing again.
• Contacts who signed up before the pause are unaffected and still in your lists.

I can't choose the plan I want

• Checkout starts you on at least the recommended plan. To switch to a smaller Pro plan later, your contacts must fit that plan's contact limit.
• The most common reason a smaller plan won't go through is your contact count. Each Pro plan has a contact limit as well as a sending limit, and your recommendation is the smallest plan that fits both. If you have 5,001 contacts, for example, the plan that allows 5,000 can't be selected — the next one up is recommended instead.
• To qualify for a smaller plan, bring your contact count under that plan's limit first. Audience → Contacts lets you remove unsubscribed, unconfirmed, and inactive contacts — those often account for the overage. See organizing your contacts.
• While your account is still active, the recommendation is recalculated at the next hourly check after you reduce your contacts — then reload Settings → Plan & billing and try again. If your account is already paused, the recommendation stays where it is until sending resumes.
• On an older or custom monthly plan? A bespoke plan that does not match SendFox's current pricing may not register as covering the requirement, so the notice can persist even though your subscription is active and paid. Message the team from your Account status page and they can correct it.

My automations didn't restart after I upgraded

• This is intentional. Automations, scheduled emails, and RSS feeds are left off so nothing goes out unexpectedly the moment your account comes back.
• Turn them back on individually once you've reviewed them.

I still need help

• Use the Send to support form on your Account status page. Your account details are included automatically, so there's nothing to look up.
• If the form can't be submitted, it offers an email link with a reference number — include that number so we can match it to your request.
• You can also browse the rest of the SendFox Help Center or email support@sendfox.com.

My complimentary plan ended and sending stopped

• That happens when there was no payment method on file on the end date. Choose a plan from your Account status page and sending resumes once the payment is confirmed — nothing was deleted.
• If you did have a card and the charge failed, you will have had an email saying so. Choose your plan again from the same page with a working card.
• Remember to switch your automations, scheduled emails, and RSS feeds back on afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

Will I lose my contacts or my email history?

No. Nothing is deleted when an account is paused or restricted. Your contacts, lists, and email results all stay in place, and you can export any of them to CSV at any time.

Will I keep getting emails while my account is paused?

Yes, a reminder 7, 14 and 30 days into the pause, each saying how to start sending again. They stop as soon as your account is restored.

Do my subscribers notice anything?

Yes, a little. Unsubscribe and confirmation links keep working while your account is paused, but other links in emails you've already sent, your Smart Pages and your hosted forms show an error page until the account is restored. Your subscribers also stop receiving new emails from you.

Is my monthly subscription cancelled when my account pauses?

No. Pausing doesn't cancel a subscription. If you want to cancel or request a refund, see How do I cancel SendFox, delete my account or get a refund? — note that cancelling a Pro plan on an account with a sending requirement means the account pauses again once the paid period ends if you're still sending more than the Free allowance.

Does this mean my lifetime deal is gone?

No. You keep your lifetime purchase, your contacts, and your account. What changed is that sending beyond what that purchase covers now requires a Pro subscription. If you change plans, How do I upgrade or downgrade my SendFox plan? covers how that works.

Can the requirement be removed from my account?

Our support team can review an account and lift the requirement where it's warranted. Message us from your Account status page with any context that helps — that request goes straight to the team with your account details attached. Once it's lifted, your Account status page says Our support team has lifted the Pro plan requirement for your account.