How publishing works in Content Drifter

• Draft. Saved and going nowhere until you act. A draft has no time or has auto-publish off. Give it a time, or press Publish now.
• Scheduled. It has a time and auto-publish is on. At that time it goes out to the connected account for its network. Until then you can edit it, move it, or take it off the schedule from the calendar.
• Held. Something that is not the post's fault stopped it going out: the network insists on an image or video and it has none, no account is connected for that network, this month's publishes are used, or the workspace is paused. A held post stays a draft and keeps its time, and the post shows Held with the reason and the one fix next to it, so the Publish now button never sits there promising what it cannot do.
• Sent to TikTok. TikTok takes a post from a scheduling tool as a draft in the creator's TikTok inbox, not live. Sent to your TikTok inbox. Open TikTok to add a sound, set who can see it, and post. It counts as a publish, but it is not Published: it has no public link and no numbers until you post it in TikTok.
• Published. It is live. The link to the post sits on the calendar card, and the numbers arrive as the network reports them.
• Failed. It tried and could not go: nothing was connected, the allowance was used up, or the network refused it. The reason is on the post, with Retry and Reschedule.

One thing the word does not mean: a post is never scheduled by being saved. If a card reads Draft, it is waiting for you.

Instagram, TikTok and YouTube refuse a post with no image or video. That is their rule, not ours, and it is absolute: there is no wording that gets a text-only post onto Instagram.

So we do not put one on your calendar. A post for one of those networks with nothing attached is saved as a draft, keeping the time you picked, and the editor says why in one sentence. Schedule and Publish stay off until you attach something. Everything else about the post keeps working, including saving your edits: only the two buttons that put it in front of an audience wait for the media.

Attach an image or a video, from an upload, your library, or an image made with AI help in the editor, and it schedules like anything else. If the post reads better as text, move it to a network that takes text: LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Threads and Bluesky all do.

Publishing goes through the account you connect, one per network, from the Platforms tab in the dashboard. It is a normal sign-in with the network, takes about a minute for most of them, and works for all 9 networks on every plan. TikTok and YouTube take video, which starts on Lite. Instagram is the exception: it needs a Business or Creator account that is linked to a Facebook Page, and takes a few minutes more if your account has to be switched first.

If you schedule before connecting, nothing is lost. The post keeps its time and the dashboard shows a banner saying how many scheduled posts will not publish until you connect. Connect before the time and they go out as planned. If the time passes first, the post is marked failed and one click reschedules it.

A connection can expire; networks revoke tokens after password changes and on their own timetables. The Platforms tab says when one needs reconnecting, and a post that hits an expired connection fails with that reason rather than silently.

• On schedule. Pick a time, or let the app pick the best time it has measured for that network. The post goes out then, without you present. This is auto-publishing, and it is on for every plan.
• Publish now. From the calendar card or the composer. It goes immediately to the connected account.

Both need a connected account for that network, and both count one publish against your monthly allowance. Publishing the same post to two networks is two publishes.

Free is a weekly ramp, not a lump sum. A new account starts small and grows every week from its signup date until it reaches the monthly ceiling:

The counts are per calendar month. When you reach one, the message says exactly when the next batch unlocks, to the day. Free also schedules up to 2 posts per day, which is a cadence most accounts never exceed and one the networks reward.

Paid plans raise every number and add Auto-Pilot timing, team seats and analytics. They do not add the ability to publish; you already have that. Compare plans.

When you turn an article or a video into a batch of posts and place them as a drip, every post is scheduled with auto-publish on and spread across free slots, at most two a day across all your networks, never inside a blackout window. The confirmation names the first slot. If nothing is connected yet, it says so, and the posts wait.

Each drip post is an ordinary scheduled post from then on: open it from the calendar to edit the text, change the time, or take it off the schedule.

• Nothing was connected for that network. Connect it from the Platforms tab, then press Retry on the post or give it a new time.
• The connection expired. Reconnect from the Platforms tab. Your scheduled posts keep their times.
• The monthly publish allowance was used. The post is held with the date the next batch unlocks. Wait for it, or choose a plan and press Retry.
• The network refused it. Usually a media size, a duplicate of a recent post, or a length rule. The exact reason is on the post. Edit and Retry.
• TikTok has too many drafts waiting. TikTok allows 5 unfinished drafts a day. Finish one in TikTok, then publish this one again.
• The time passed while it could not go. The post is marked failed with that reason. Reschedule it, or publish it now.

In every case the post is still yours and still on the calendar. Nothing is deleted by a failed attempt.

The calendar shows each post with its state. The Home tab shows a banner whenever scheduled posts cannot go out, with the one action that fixes it. The getting-started checklist walks the whole path: generate, connect, schedule, watch it go live.

Ready? Start free and publish your first post today