How to pause publishing and add a publish delay (Publishing Safety)

Publishing Safety lets you control how and when posts go out across your profile groups. You can pause publishing for one profile group or your whole account, add a short delay to Publish now, and set up a compliance policy that checks posts before they go live.

How to access Publishing Safety

1. Go to Settings.
2. Under Publishing Settings, click Publishing Safety.

Only admins can change Publishing Safety settings.

Each profile group is listed with its Publishing status, Publish now delay and Compliance policy. Use Search by name or the Type filter (Agency, Brand, Client, Campaign, Group or Project) to find a group quickly.

How to pause publishing

You can pause publishing for a single profile group or for every profile group at once. While publishing is paused, posts for those profiles can't be published.

Pause one profile group

1. Find the profile group in the list.
2. Turn off the switch under Publishing status.
3. Click Disable to confirm.

Pause your whole account

1. Turn off Publishing status for the entire account at the top of the list.
2. Click Disable to confirm.

How to resume publishing

1. Go to Settings → Publishing Settings → Publishing Safety.
2. Turn the switch under Publishing status back on for the profile group, or turn Publishing status for the entire account back on.

New and scheduled posts publish as normal from then on. Posts that failed during the pause stay in a failed status and don't retry on their own. To publish them, follow Republishing a failed post on Vista Social.

How to add a delay to Publish now

A delay gives you a few minutes to catch a mistake after you click Publish now. It applies to the profile group you set it on.

1. Click the pencil icon next to the profile group under Publish now delay.
2. Enter the delay in minutes (from 0 to 59).
3. Click the check mark to save.

During the delay, you can review or cancel the post before it goes live.

How to set up a compliance policy

A compliance policy checks posts against your brand's rules before they publish.

1. Click the pencil icon next to the profile group under Compliance policy.
2. Write your policy, click Use default policy, or use Generate with AI to create one from your industry and the content you want to avoid.
3. Turn on Active.
4. Click Save.

The policy applies to every post in that profile group, including attached images and videos. Each photo or video is checked against the same policy as the caption, so a non-compliant visual is flagged before the post goes live. For the full setup, see Brand Safety and Compliance Policy.

Best practices

• Pause the affected profile group during a crisis or sensitive news moment, review what's scheduled, then turn publishing back on.
• Before you pause, check the calendar for posts due during the pause so you know what to reschedule afterwards.
• Add a short Publish now delay (for example 5 minutes) for groups where several people publish, so a teammate can catch typos or wrong links.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What happens to my scheduled posts when I pause publishing?

A: Any post scheduled to go out while publishing is paused fails with an error. Failed posts don't retry on their own, so turn publishing back on, then republish the posts you still want to share.

Q: Who can change Publishing Safety settings?

A: Only admins can pause publishing, set a Publish now delay or set up a compliance policy.

Q: Does pausing one profile group affect my other groups?

A: No. Only the profile group you turn off is paused. To pause everything, use Publishing status for the entire account.

Q: Does the Publish now delay change my scheduled posts?

A: No. The delay only applies to posts sent with Publish now. Scheduled posts still go out at their scheduled time.

Need help?

Reach out to our support team, and we are happy to help.

Related Reading:

Brand Safety and Compliance Policy

Republishing a failed post on Vista Social

Creating approval workflows (single-step and multi-step)

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