Why is my SendFox account paused or restricted?

If your SendFox account is paused or restricted, the Account status page tells you why and what to do next. Here's what each state means and how to start sending again.

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 restricted account has a single page that explains its exact situation. Open the account menu in the top-right corner and choose Account status, or go 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 a Lifetime account can 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 depends on how much you paid and how much 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. See Your $29 Lifetime send pool explained.
Accounts sending lightly — if your sending over the last 30 days is within the Free plan's monthly send allowance, your account is never paused for this, no matter how long you've had it. Dormant and low-volume Lifetime accounts are unaffected.
Accounts earning revenue through Paid Newsletters — these are handled separately.

The three stages

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

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.
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.
Paused. If the 30 days pass without a qualifying Pro subscription, sending stops. You keep full read and export access to everything in your account.

If you're on the older Empire plan

"Empire Add-On" is the previous name of SendFox's monthly plan, and it is being restructured into the Pro tiers. If you hold a lifetime deal and pay for Empire monthly, you can still receive this notice, because an Empire subscription does not count as the Pro plan the requirement asks for. To clear it, switch to the recommended tier from Settings → Plan & billing. The Pro tiers include the same monthly-plan features Empire did; the contact and sending limits are what differ from tier to tier.

Two things worth knowing before the date on your notice. Pausing an account does not cancel a subscription — so if you would rather not keep paying while you decide, cancel it from Plan & billing (see how to cancel). And if the recommended tier looks wrong for how much you actually send, message the team from your Account status page before that date rather than after.

Why this changed

SendFox launched in 2018 and has never raised its prices since. The cost of actually delivering email has grown a great deal over those 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 your 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.

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. Your audience never sees an error.

Paused until you subscribe:

Sending anything — one-off emails, automations, and RSS-driven emails
Contact imports, including CSV, Google, and Mailchimp imports. An import already in progress when the account pauses will fail and need to be run again afterwards.
New signups through your forms and Smart Pages. The pages themselves stay online, but they stop accepting new contacts while the account is paused — so 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 to start sending again

Open Account status from the account menu.
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.
Choose the plan and complete checkout.
Wait for confirmation. We verify the subscription with our payment provider before restoring the account — this usually takes moments, and the page refreshes itself while it's confirming. If you close the tab, come back to Account status and it will show the confirmed state once it's done.
Review your automations, scheduled emails, and RSS feeds. They are not switched back on automatically.

Why you can't pick a smaller plan

Checkout requires the recommended plan or higher. If you try to choose a smaller one, you'll see a message that your account requires a specific plan or above. That figure is set by your own contacts and recent sending, so it isn't fixed forever — as your volume changes, the recommendation can move down as well as up. 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 Comparing SendFox Pro plans and Pro plan features.

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 — a schedule set weeks ago may no longer make 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

Sometimes our team gives 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 says Pro 2 is on us until Sep 30, 2026 (your tier and date will differ) along with "You're on a complimentary 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 it ends

We email you 15 days before the end date to tell you exactly what will happen, naming the date, the plan, and the price. 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. 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 — most often for a deliverability or compliance review. 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.

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 the plan you chose is the recommended one or higher. A smaller plan won't restore sending.
Still seeing the notice after subscribing? Check the plan named in the notice against the one you bought. If your account needs a larger plan than the one you're on, the notice keeps showing until you move up to at least the plan it names — even though your subscription is active and paid. Your Account status page shows "Your Pro plan is confirmed" once you're genuinely covered.
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, so hosted forms and embedded forms stop taking submissions even though the pages still load.
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

Plans below your account's requirement are blocked at checkout, and the same applies to switching plans or resuming a cancelled subscription.
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.
After you reduce your contacts, the recommendation isn't recalculated instantly — allow up to an hour, then reload Settings → Plan & billing and try again.
The requirement follows your contacts and your recent sending, so if you've genuinely scaled back it will drop on a later check.
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.

My complimentary plan ended and sending stopped

That happens when there was no payment method on file on the end date. Add a card or pick a plan from Plan & billing and sending resumes immediately — nothing was deleted.
If you did have a card and the charge failed, you will have had an email saying so. Update your payment details and try again from the same page.
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.

Do my subscribers notice anything?

They won't see errors on the links you've already sent them — unsubscribe and confirmation links keep working while your account is paused. They will stop receiving new emails from you, and they won't be able to sign up through your forms or Smart Pages until the account is restored.

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 can I refund or cancel my SendFox account? — note that cancelling a Pro plan on an account with a sending requirement means the account will pause again once the paid period ends.

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 to Upgrade/Downgrade a License 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.