Distill.io alerts not arriving by email: troubleshooting steps
Trace a missing Distill.io email alert from monitor checks through change detection, conditions, actions, recipient verification, and quota.
If a Distill.io alert did not reach your inbox, trace the chain in order: monitor check → detected change → condition evaluation → email action and recipient → quota and delivery. A failure at any earlier step prevents a later one from sending an email. Start with the monitor’s Check Log, then inspect Change History, the Condition Debugger, the email action and recipient, and account usage.
This guide follows Distill’s documented troubleshooting flow. It cannot reveal the state of your individual inbox or account; if the alert was generated and the settings look correct, Distill support will need the monitor log and alert history to investigate. See Distill’s missing alerts troubleshooting guide.
1. Check whether the monitor ran
- Open the monitor in Distill and view its Check Log.
- Look at the latest check time and result. If there is no recent entry, the monitor may be off, unable to run, or dependent on a device that is not running.
- If Distill says the log is available on the device running the monitor, treat it as a local monitor: make sure that device is on and local monitoring is active.
- Turn the monitor on and enable local monitoring if either is disabled. Wait for a new check, then continue the diagnosis from that entry.
Distill distinguishes local monitors, which depend on the device running them, from cloud monitors, which run on Distill’s service. A missing or failed check is not an email-delivery problem yet: without a successful check, there may be no change to alert on. See Distill’s cloud and local monitor documentation.
2. Resolve check errors before looking at email
Open the latest error’s details and captured snapshot. The error often explains why the monitor could not inspect the intended content.
| What you see | Likely cause | What to try |
|---|---|---|
SELECTION_EMPTY |
The selected page element is absent when the check runs, may have moved, or may load later. | Review the selection against the snapshot. Select the correct content and allow for its load time before the check. |
| Access or loading error | The site may require authentication or block cloud access. | Confirm that the monitor has the required login state and settings. If cloud access is blocked, consider a local monitor where appropriate. |
| Snapshot is blank or incomplete | The page may not have loaded the relevant content by capture time, or the monitor may be looking at the wrong region. | Compare the snapshot with the live page, correct the selection, and account for delayed content. |
Do not diagnose mail delivery while the check itself is failing. First get a successful check of the intended page content.
3. Confirm that Distill recorded a change
- Open the monitor’s Change History.
- Look for an entry at the time you expected an alert.
- If no change appears, compare the monitored selection and saved snapshot with the content that changed on the page.
A visible change in a browser is not necessarily a change in the monitored region. The selection may exclude the updated content, the site may render it after the check, or an authenticated page may have lost its logged-in state. Correct the selection or page timing, and verify the monitor can access the right page before expecting an alert.
4. Check conditions that can suppress an alert
Distill handles alerting in two stages: it detects a change, then evaluates the configured conditions. A recorded change can therefore exist without qualifying for an alert if a local or global condition filters it out.
- Open the Condition Debugger for the monitor or alert configuration.
- Inspect the condition result for the change that should have triggered the email.
- Test or refine conditions that are too strict, then wait for or trigger a check that exercises the corrected rule.
Distill describes the rule this way: alerts are sent only when both steps succeed. See Optimizing Alerts with Conditions.
5. Verify the email action and recipient
- Open the monitor’s Options and confirm that an Email action is configured.
- Check the destination address character by character, including whether it is the inbox you are checking.
- Review applicable global actions as well as monitor-specific actions; either configuration can be relevant to the alert.
- If you added another email address, verify it. Distill requires additional addresses to be verified before alerts start going to them.
Use Distill’s notification action documentation for the current action settings.
6. Check usage and plan limits
Review account usage and the applicable limits for checks and email notifications. Distill identifies exhausted monthly resources and email quota or plan limits as possible reasons checks or alerts stop. Check the account’s current quota before treating a missing email as a mail transport defect; limits depend on the account and its plan.
7. Separate alert generation from email delivery
Use the evidence in the monitor log, Change History, and alert configuration to identify the failing stage:
| Evidence | Next step |
|---|---|
| No recent check | Restore the monitor’s ability to run. For local monitoring, check the running device and local monitoring status. |
| Check error | Resolve the page access, selection, or load-timing problem shown in the error and snapshot. |
| Successful check, no Change History entry | Verify the selected region, page timing, and logged-in state. |
| Change recorded, condition fails | Use the Condition Debugger and adjust the condition if it is excluding the intended change. |
| Change qualifies, but email action or recipient is wrong or unverified | Correct the action or address, then verify the address when prompted. |
| Configuration appears correct, but the email is missing | Check quota and plan limits. If those are in order, contact Distill support with the monitor’s Check Log, alert history, and relevant timestamps. |
The public documentation cannot establish whether a specific message was filtered or rejected by an individual inbox, or diagnose an account-specific delivery state. If the alert was generated and the documented settings and usage look correct, provide Distill support with the logs and timestamps so they can investigate that case.
8. Consider another notification channel only after locating the failure
Distill lists email, SMS, mobile push, Discord, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and webhook-connected apps as notification options. A second channel can help with continuity, but it will not fix a monitor that did not run, a change that was not detected, or a condition that filtered the change.
Compare channels by plan eligibility, whether a recipient or device needs verification, and whether the issue affects email alone or every action. Distill documents SMS as a paid feature that requires phone verification. See its notification channel documentation.
What to include when contacting Distill support
- The monitor name or identifier and whether it is local or cloud-based.
- The time and result of the relevant Check Log entry, including the error details if any.
- The related Change History entry and condition result, if a change was recorded.
- The configured email action and whether the address is verified.
- The account’s relevant usage or quota status and the timestamps when you expected the email.
These details help distinguish a check or detection failure from an action configuration, quota, or delivery issue.
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FAQ
Why does the page look changed to me, but Distill has no change entry?
The monitor may watch a different region, check before the content loads, or lack the page’s logged-in state. Compare its selection and captured snapshot with the content that changed.
Does a change in Change History guarantee an email?
No. The change must also pass configured conditions, and an eligible email action and recipient must be in place.
Could I use another notification channel as a workaround?
Possibly, if the problem is specific to email and that channel is available to your plan and configured correctly. First confirm that the monitor ran and generated an alert; another channel cannot fix an earlier failure.
What if every setting looks right?
Check current usage limits, then contact Distill support with the relevant log entries, alert history, and timestamps. Inbox and account-specific delivery state cannot be determined from public documentation.
