Unable to unapprove email program

[Dan_Stevens_]

I'm trying to unapprove and Email Program (batch) but keep getting the following error:

Any idea what this means?  This was a test Email Program (containing 1 lead) and need to disable it.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Dan,

Is the "used by" tab showing anything?

Have you set up an A/B test on your email program?

-Greg

[Dan_Stevens_]

Hi Greg - yes, it's showing the inactive smart campaign; and yes, it's an A/B test.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

You probably want to deactivate the A/B  test first. If it's an email program:

-Greg

[Dan_Stevens_]

You can't deactivate an A/B test without first unapproving it.

What I did was remove the reference to the program in the "test" smart campaign and that allowed me to unapprove it.  Makes no sense as to why I'd have to remove all smart campaign references before unapproving.

We have an issue on our hands where the name of a email - within a production email program - is not referenceable in any smart campaign (meaning we can't define any triggers/filters, nor send out any test campaigns).  Usually it would appear as "[Email Program Name.Subject Line Test]".  But it's not.  And it is approved.  Support's not even able to figure out the issue (yet).

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi again Dan,

I ran a test an I get the exact same message. Here is the email program with A/B test:

Important: the email name is "invite 1"

The smart campaign smart list is:

and the flow is:

You will note that the flow references the A/B test and not the "Invite 1" email itself.

If I remove that flow step, I can unapprove the program, but then I cannot use the "Invite 1" email in the flow step.

Now if remove the A/B test from the program, the email becomes referenceable in the smart campaign, but the A/B test can obviously no longer be referenced.

Everything acts as if the A/B test object completely masks and replaces the email. This would explain the behavior.

-Greg

[Dan_Stevens_]

That's correct.  What's confusing is that you need to remove all references to the email in any smart campaign before you can un-approve the program (and make any changes to the A/B test, if necessary). 

[Grégoire_Miche2]

The "used by" tab on the program shows the program is used in the smart campaign:

And as I cannot reference the program in the flow step if it's not approved, I gather that It's logical that I cannot unapprove the program if it is referenced.

-Greg

[Dan_Stevens_ · Accepted solution]

Which means if you have an Email Program ready to go - including smart campaigns to track lead progression - and you need to make a minor change to the A/B test criteria, you first need to remove all references in the smart campaigns before doing so.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

I fully agree this is really not convenient

I feel the problem may also be that we cannot edit the A/B test without approving it. In other terms, there is no draft for an A/B test, as there is for other types of assets.

-Greg