Post scheduling and automation in Social are controlled by your project settings. These settings determine when posts are published, whether approval is required, and how often content is automatically posted.

Understanding how these elements work together is key to managing your publishing workflow effectively.

## 🔎 How Scheduling Works

When creating a post, you can choose between two options:

## 📌 Post Now

- The post is published immediately
- If approval is required, it will first go to **Pending Review**

## 📅 Schedule Post

- The post is scheduled for a specific date and time
- It will publish at the selected time
- If approval is required, it must be approved before it goes live
- **⚠️ Schedule Post + Approval Required:** If a scheduled post is awaiting approval and its scheduled date passes before it is approved, the approval action will fail. In this case, you must edit the post and set a new future publish date before approving.
- **Google Business Profile note:** For GBP posts, scheduled times must always be in the future at the moment of approval — past datetimes will be rejected by the platform.

## ⚙️ How Automation Works

Automation is defined during project setup under:

**For new projects:** Left Sidebar → Social → All Projects → Create Project → Configure

**For existing projects:** Left Sidebar → Social → All Projects → [Select Project] → Settings → Configure Automation

## 🔁 Auto Posting Frequency

If enabled, the system will:

- Automatically generate and publish posts
- Follow the selected frequency (e.g., “Post every 3 days”)
- Available frequency options typically include daily, every 2 days, every 3 days, weekly, and bi-weekly. The full list of options is shown in the frequency dropdown during project configuration.

If disabled:

- All posts must be created manually

## 🖼️ Image Source Behavior

Depending on your selection:

- **AI Generate all images**  
  → All posts will include AI-generated images.  
  **Note:** Generated images are automatically adjusted to meet platform image standards (e.g., Google Business Profile requirements). Images that fail to meet these standards may not publish successfully.
- **Select only from Media Library**  
  → Only uploaded media will be used.  
  **⚠️ Warning:** Media Library images must be under 5 MB. Images exceeding this limit may cause publish failures for automated posts, particularly on Google Business Profile.
- **Hybrid (Media Library + AI)**  
  → The system first attempts to use images from your Media Library. If no suitable image is available, it automatically generates one using AI.

**Google Business Profile callout:** GBP posts have additional platform-specific constraints, including image size limits (under 5 MB) and image dimension/quality requirements. Make sure your media meets these standards to avoid publish failures.

## 🔔 Approval Settings

Approval settings determine whether posts are published automatically or require review. There are two main options:

- **Post automatically:** Posts publish immediately or at their scheduled time with no intervention required.
- **Requires Approval:** Posts enter **Pending Review** and must be manually approved before they will publish.

## ✅ Post automatically (no approval required)

1. Posts are published immediately or at scheduled time
2. No approval step

## 🛑 Approve before posting

- All posts go to **Pending Review**
- Must be manually approved before publishing

## ⚠️ Approve before posting (only if contains AI Generated images)

1. Only posts with AI-generated images require approval
2. Other posts publish automatically

## 🔄 End-to-End Flow

Here’s how everything connects:

1. Create or generate a post
2. Add media (AI or Media Library)
3. Choose Post Now or Schedule
4. System checks approval settings

Then:

- If approval required → goes to **Pending Review**
- If no approval → publishes automatically

## 📌 Common Scenarios

## ❓ Why is my post not publishing?

Possible reasons:

- Approval is required and the post is still in **Pending Review**
- Scheduled time has not been reached
- Automation is turned off and no manual publish was triggered

## ❓ Why did my post publish automatically?

1. Project is set to **Post automatically**
2. No approval requirement is active

## ❓ Why are only some posts requiring approval?

Approval is set to:

**Approve before posting (only if contains AI Generated images)**

## 🛠️ Troubleshooting Common Issues

If a post fails to publish, the most common causes are oversized images or stale scheduled dates. Use the steps below to resolve each issue.

- **Media Library image over 5 MB (publish failure, especially on GBP):** Open the post, remove the oversized image, and replace it with one under 5 MB (or compress the original). Re-save the post and retry publishing.
- **AI-generated image does not meet platform standards:** Regenerate the image so it can be re-adjusted to platform requirements, or replace it with a compliant image from your Media Library.
- **Approval failed with “Must be a future datetime” (HTTP 400):** The post’s scheduled date passed while it was awaiting approval. Edit the post, set a new future publish date, and then approve it again.
- **Scheduled post never published:** Confirm the scheduled time has been reached, that the post is not stuck in **Pending Review**, and that automation is enabled at the project level.

## 🧠 Key Notes

1. Scheduling and automation are controlled at the **project level**
2. Approval settings override publishing behavior
3. Auto posting generates content automatically based on frequency
4. Media source settings affect how content is created
5. Google Business Profile posts have additional constraints — images must be under 5 MB and meet GBP image standards, and scheduled times must always be in the future at the moment of approval

Post scheduling and automation give you full control over how your content is published. By combining scheduling options, automation frequency, and approval workflows, you can create a system that balances efficiency with control.

Understanding these rules helps ensure your content is published exactly when and how you expect.