Most monday.com automations stop for one of a few reasons. The person who built it was deactivated. A column or board it uses was deleted. The account ran out of monthly actions. Or two automations with the same trigger are fighting each other. The board’s Run history usually tells you which one.
The hard part is that monday.com does not always warn you. An automation can sit switched off for weeks while a manager wonders why tasks are not being assigned. This guide shows you how to find the cause fast, using monday.com’s own help docs and pricing page, checked in October 2026.
First: read Run history, do not rebuild
When an automation breaks, the urge is to open it and rebuild it. Don’t. Rebuilding wipes out the evidence. And if the cause is a limit or a permission change, the new copy will fail the same way.
- Open the board and click Automate at the top.
- Click the Manage tab, then Run history.
- Find the run. Each one is marked as successful, In progress or Failure.
- Click the arrow on the right to expand it. Failed runs show a suggested fix in red.
- Hover the cog icon to see how many actions that one run used.
Two limits to know. Run history only keeps 10 days of data, so old failures are gone. And to check one item, open it and go to Activity Log > Automation activity.
Match the symptom to the cause
| What you see | Most likely cause | Where to fix it |
|---|---|---|
| Automation switched off by itself | Owner deactivated, or a target was deleted | Board Automations page, red error text |
| Some runs work, some fail | Two automations share a trigger | Merge them into one |
| Everything stopped on the same day | Monthly action quota used up | Autopilot hub > Usage |
| Fails only during bulk edits or imports | Per-minute rate limit | Turn back on, slow the volume |
| No entry in Run history at all | The trigger never fired | Check the trigger column and value |
| You cannot create or edit automations | Quota used up, or you are a viewer | Admin > Usage stats, or your role |
Cause 1: The owner was deactivated
This is the most common cause in any team with staff turnover. Automations belong to the person who built them. When that person is deactivated, their automations stop across the whole account. The board shows: “The automation owner was deactivated from your account.”
A related error appears if the builder lost edit rights on the board or a column, or was changed to a viewer. Viewers cannot run or edit automations. So a license downgrade can quietly kill a team’s workflow.
Fix: move ownership, do not just reactivate the leaver.
- Reactivate the person for now. You cannot transfer from an inactive account.
- Click your profile picture, then Administration > Directory > Automations ownership.
- Pick the old owner and the new owner, then click Transfer ownership.
- In the same area, set a default owner under Keep automations running when users are deactivated. Pick a real admin who is staying, not a shared inbox.
Step 4 is the one people skip. Without it, this happens again with the next leaver.
Cause 2: Two automations, one trigger
This bug is the worst kind. It is random and hard to repeat. monday.com calls these competing automations. A classic case: one rule archives an item when Status becomes Done. A second rule sets another column on the same trigger. The archive runs first, and the second rule fails because the item is gone.
Fix: monday.com’s guide on competing automations says to merge, not reorder. Delete the competing rules. Build one custom automation with all the actions in order. Put move, archive or delete last.
Cause 3: You ran out of actions
Two facts trip people up. First, automations are not on Free or Basic. They start on Standard. Second, the limit counts actions, not runs. One run can use many actions.
| Plan (billed yearly) | Price per seat | Automation actions per month |
|---|---|---|
| Free / Basic ($9) | $0 / $9 | Not included |
| Standard | $12 | 250 |
| Pro | $19 | 25,000 |
| Enterprise | Custom | 250,000 |
Prices are from monday.com/pricing. Standard to Pro is a 100x jump in actions. Here is how 250 goes fast, per the actions and limits page:
- Creating an item and filling a Status, People or Dropdown column costs 1 action per column, plus 1 for the item.
- “Notify board subscribers” costs 1 action per subscriber. Six subscribers means six actions every time.
- Condition steps in the workflow builder use actions too.
- Some marketplace apps run their own automations in the background.
When you hit 100%, you get a 72-hour grace period. After that, runs pause. Any overage comes off next month’s total, so a month can start at zero. Worse, a fully used quota also blocks you from editing automations. You cannot even switch off the rule that caused it.
Fix: open the Autopilot hub and click Usage, or Administration > Usage stats. Monthly plans reset on your start date. Yearly plans reset on the 2nd of each month.
Cause 4: A column, group or board was deleted
If a rule points at something that was deleted, it switches off the next time it fires. For a missing board, the error says “The selected board no longer exists.” Cross-board rules break most, because the deleted board is usually not the one you are looking at.
Fix: open the workspace trash. Deleted items stay there for 30 days. Restore it, then switch the automation back On. Restoring does not turn it back on for you.
Cause 5: The board hit its item limit
If a rule tries to create an item on a full board, the run fails. It retries a minute later. If the board is still full, the rule switches off. Archive old items to make room, then turn the rule back on.
Cause 6: Too many runs in one minute
Each automation can only run so many times per minute. Go over it and that rule is disabled. Common causes are a loop, a burst of API or webhook traffic, or a bulk change across hundreds of items.
Fix: turn it back on, then find the burst. If you change 400 statuses at once every week, change the process, not the rule. For Gmail or Outlook steps, the limit comes from the other service, not monday.com.
Cause 7: The trigger never fired
If Run history has nothing for the item, nothing failed. The rule never started. Check these in order:
- Is the trigger column the exact one in the rule? Boards collect look-alike columns.
- Did the status change to the exact label the rule watches?
- Was the change on a subitem while the rule watches the parent, or the other way around?
- Did another automation set the value? Some triggers only react to people.
Then change the value yourself and watch Run history. If your change fires it and the automated path does not, the problem is upstream.
Cause 8: Inactive account
monday.com can pause automations on an account with no activity for two weeks or more. If a seasonal board wakes up and nothing runs, check this first.
What experienced admins do
- One owner for all shared automations. A stable admin account owns them, so leavers never break anything.
- Monthly usage check. I look at Usage stats on the first workday of each month. Warning emails are not reliable enough to depend on.
- Fewer subscriber notifications. Notify one person or a group column, not every subscriber.
- Final actions last. Archive, move and delete always go at the end of a recipe.
When NOT to fix it in monday.com
If your team keeps hitting the 250-action cap on Standard, the rules are not broken. The plan is too small. Moving the heavy steps to Zapier or Make can help. But for most teams of 10 or more, Pro is cheaper than the time spent working around the cap.
Common questions
Why did my monday.com automation turn itself off?
The usual reasons are: the owner was deactivated or lost permissions, a target column, group or board was deleted, the board hit its item limit, the rate limit was hit, or the account was inactive for two weeks or more.
How far back does Run history go?
Ten days. Anything older is gone, even for support. If a rule fails now and then, check the log within a week.
Does one automation run always use one action?
No. Filling several columns on a new item costs one action each, plus one for the item. Notifying subscribers costs one per person. A single run can easily cost five actions.
Why can’t I create or edit automations?
Either your account used its full monthly actions, or you are a viewer. Viewers cannot create or edit automations. Ask an admin to check Usage stats, then your role.
Will rebuilding the automation fix it?
Only if the rule itself is corrupted, which is rare. If the cause is an owner, a quota, a deleted board or a clashing rule, the new copy fails the same way. And you lose the old setup.
Do automations work on the Basic plan?
No. Automations and integrations start on Standard, which includes 250 actions a month each.
Limits and steps checked against monday.com pricing and support docs on October 14, 2026. Vendors change plans; confirm before you buy.
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