Launcher/Banner not showing

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If you have a launcher or banner you expect to show but it doesn’t, follow this troubleshooting guide. For flows and checklist please check the flow not starting guide.

Is Userflow.js installed in your app?

Run through the Userflow.js installation check to verify the installation.

Without Userflow.js installed, nothing will start/show (except if you preview with a test user via the Chrome extension).

Make sure you’re not in a Preview tab

Make sure you’re not in a “Preview tab” (the tab that Userflow opens when you click Preview or Select element in the builder). This tab may be running as a fake test user rather than the real user you’re signed in as.

To make sure: Close the tab your app is open in. Open a new tab and navigate to your app again.

Is your launcher/banner published in the user’s environment?

Go to the builder in Userflow. Verify that the launcher or banner is published in the same environment as the one you’re viewing your app in.

If the Publish button is disabled, the item is fully published across all environments.

If the button is not disabled, try to click it to see if any unpublished changes have been made, and consider publishing them.

Has the user already seen and dismissed the launcher/banner?

If the user you are testing with has already seen and dismissed the launcher/banner, it will no longer be visible.

Find your user under the Users tab in the Userflow UI, switch to the Sessions tab and check if the user has already seen and dismissed the launcher/banner.

If they have, then that’s why it won’t show. If you want to test the launcher/banner again, you can either delete the entire user account or just the launcher/banner session.

Does the user match the conditions?

Double-check that the user actually matches the launcher’s and banner’s conditions.

  • Find your user in the Users tab of the Userflow UI, and verify that all attribute conditions match.  

  • If you’re using event conditions, look through the user’s Activity feed and verify that the right events have (or have not) been tracked.  

  • If you’re using company or company membership attributes/events, also make sure that userflow.group(companyId) is called in your app and the company matches the conditions.  

  • Make sure page conditions (if any) are correctly set. Note that for launchers you set the page where the launcher should show under Show on URLs matching.  

Launchers only: Is the target element found?

Launchers are tied to a target element; for the launcher to appear, that element must be found by Userflow.

The checks to do for launcher elements is a partial list of the element not found checks for flows. So please check if the:

  1. Element changed - The element changed after you published the launcher.

  2. Element has dynamic text - If it does, make sure to toggle Dynamic text on the element selection.

  3. Element looks significantly different for different users - Sometimes an element looks different for different users (e.g. trial user vs. paid user) - This should in general not have an impact, but in certain cases it does. If the changing part is text, do the same as (2). If it is not text, then try to select a part of the element that excludes the dynamic part or potentially go to manual CSS as a last resort.

  4. Element uses dynamic CSS - Some applications use dynamic CSS class names, which means the CSS class names either change for each user or after each deployment. This makes it extra tricky for Userflow since the element is no longer “the same” from our point of view. To solve this, you will need a bit of help from your developers, You can learn more about this in our guide about Element inference and dynamic class names.

Launchers only: Does the user have an active flow?

By default, launchers are not displayed when you have an active flow. This can be changed by enabling Show launcher while flows are active. If this is disabled and the launcher isn't showing, check whether the user currently has an active flow by checking the UI for any visible flow steps. If nothing is visible, then find your user under the Users tab in the Userflow UI, switch to the Sessions tab, and check if any flows are listed as active with a green play button. If there is another active flow session, then notice which step they’re currently on. Then go to the builder for that flow and find that step. If it’s a Hidden step, then the user is stuck on that step, and the flow will be active.

Be careful with hidden steps! Hidden steps have 1 rule: They MUST have a trigger that eventually matches, and either takes the user to a non-hidden step or dismisses the flow. Otherwise, the user may get stuck, and nothing else can auto-start.

If this is your problem, please first fix the hidden step by adding a trigger that always matches. Reconsider if you really need the hidden step. Often, hidden steps can be deleted, and their triggers moved to the previous step.

You can manually end or delete the stuck flow session via the Userflow UI to fix the stuck user this time.

Is the z-index lower than your application content?

In general, Userflow content, including launchers and banners, has a high z-index. However, in rare cases, the z-index may be lower than your application's UI, so you won’t be able to see the launcher or banner. To fix this, increase the z-index of the launcher or banner in the builder's advanced settings. This functionality can also be used when you want a launcher or banner to appear below a portion of your application's UI.

Do you have the locale enabled?

If you are using Localization, you need to set the user's locale for the flow to start. You do this on the Localization tab of the launcher/banner.

Still not working?

If you’ve gone through this guide and you still can’t get your launcher/banner to show, then please reach out to us and provide the following info:

  1. Confirm that a Userflow employee may add themselves to your account so we can inspect the launcher/banner and the user.  

  2. Which launcher/banner do you expect to show? Provide the link to the launcher/banner builder.  

  3. Which user(s) do you expect the launcher/banner to show for? Provide links to their profile in the Userflow UI.