Abort Smart Campaign - Managing Frozen Members/Frozen Member Reentry | Community
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bogdan_intuit
Level 2
July 6, 2026
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Abort Smart Campaign - Managing Frozen Members/Frozen Member Reentry

  • July 6, 2026
  • 4 replies
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I want to make sure I understand the Abort Smart Campaign functionality.

  1. Abort Smart Campaign can only work on Batch Campaigns, not Triggered campaigns.
  2. When a campaign is Aborted, it freezes all current members of the Smart Campaign where they are. They will stay as members of the Smart Campaign.

My question is:

  1. If the Smart Campaign is run again, what happens with the “frozen” members? Will they continue moving through the flow? Will they be stuck permanently in their current step and never progress? My understanding is the latter  but this isn’t expressly communicated in the documentation.
  2. If you want the frozen members to reenter the same smart campaign and go through the flow again, would you need to use the Remove from Flow step in a different Smart Campaign or can you just have them come in again in a new batch run (depending on your configuration settings)?

 

    Best answer by SanfordWhiteman

    Thanks for the reply! I’m using the term frozen based on my experience with the function. The documentation says:

    But you can’t have experienced what you suggest! People are not prevented from re-running steps they already ran. They do not resume from the step they were on at the time of the Abort Campaign. They start from the top of the flow.

     

    Aborting does not undo steps already finished, it stops more from happening (example: emails cannot be undelivered).

    It also clarifies that Remove From Flow is a distinct and separate action.

    Yes, it is a different action. Remove From Flow takes one or more people out of the flow. (N.B. It, too, doesn’t remember where they were and force them to resume from there.)

     

    Abort Campaign stops the campaign run for everyone, which can happen even before anybody enters the flow (for example, if it’s scheduled for the future). Abort Campaign also logs the campaign as Shutdown which will not happen with Remove From Flow.

     

    For people currently in the flow, Abort Campaign is equivalent to Remove From Flow. That doesn’t mean it’s exactly the same in every way! 

     

    I have seen aborted Smart Campaigns where the aborted members remain in the SC in a Wait Step, shown as such under the campaign Status tab and when queried with a Smart List using the filter Member of Smart Campaign (targeting the aborted campaign).

    The Member of Smart Campaign filter is not relevant to whether someone is currently in the flow.   

     

    When a campaign is aborted and has not been re-run, the displayed number of People in Wait step reflects the previous (aborted) run. It doesn’t get updated until you run the campaign again. However, it doesn’t mean those people are actually in the Wait: when running the campaign again you will see them enter at the top of the flow.

    4 replies

    SanfordWhiteman
    SanfordWhiteman
    Level 10
    July 6, 2026

    Not sure where you’re getting the term “frozen.” That term isn’t used in the docs, nor informally by users. It wouldn’t capture the technical reality at all. There is no “sticking“ or “freezing.”

     

    Aborting a campaign is like running Remove From Flow for everybody who qualified. They’re free to qualify again (assuming Setup lets them qualify more than once). If you run the campaign again, they’ll start from the top of the flow.

    B
    bogdan_intuitAuthor
    Level 2
    July 7, 2026

    Thanks for the reply! I’m using the term frozen based on my experience with the function. The documentation says:

    Aborting does not undo steps already finished, it stops more from happening (example: emails cannot be undelivered).

    It also clarifies that Remove From Flow is a distinct and separate action.

    I have seen aborted Smart Campaigns where the aborted members remain in the SC in a Wait Step, shown as such under the campaign Status tab and when queried with a Smart List using the filter Member of Smart Campaign (targeting the aborted campaign).

    Hopefully this helps address where I’m coming from 🙂

    SanfordWhiteman
    SanfordWhitemanAccepted solution
    Level 10
    July 7, 2026

    Thanks for the reply! I’m using the term frozen based on my experience with the function. The documentation says:

    But you can’t have experienced what you suggest! People are not prevented from re-running steps they already ran. They do not resume from the step they were on at the time of the Abort Campaign. They start from the top of the flow.

     

    Aborting does not undo steps already finished, it stops more from happening (example: emails cannot be undelivered).

    It also clarifies that Remove From Flow is a distinct and separate action.

    Yes, it is a different action. Remove From Flow takes one or more people out of the flow. (N.B. It, too, doesn’t remember where they were and force them to resume from there.)

     

    Abort Campaign stops the campaign run for everyone, which can happen even before anybody enters the flow (for example, if it’s scheduled for the future). Abort Campaign also logs the campaign as Shutdown which will not happen with Remove From Flow.

     

    For people currently in the flow, Abort Campaign is equivalent to Remove From Flow. That doesn’t mean it’s exactly the same in every way! 

     

    I have seen aborted Smart Campaigns where the aborted members remain in the SC in a Wait Step, shown as such under the campaign Status tab and when queried with a Smart List using the filter Member of Smart Campaign (targeting the aborted campaign).

    The Member of Smart Campaign filter is not relevant to whether someone is currently in the flow.   

     

    When a campaign is aborted and has not been re-run, the displayed number of People in Wait step reflects the previous (aborted) run. It doesn’t get updated until you run the campaign again. However, it doesn’t mean those people are actually in the Wait: when running the campaign again you will see them enter at the top of the flow.

    BlaneMcMichen-1
    Adobe Employee
    BlaneMcMichen-1Adobe Employee
    Adobe Employee
    July 9, 2026

    Your understanding is mostly right, and this is where I'd be careful because the docs tell us what Abort does, but they don't fully spell out the later re-entry behavior.

    What's documented:

    • Abort Smart Campaign applies to batch campaigns. Abort a Smart Campaign
    • Aborting does not undo completed steps; it just stops more from happening. Abort a Smart Campaign
    • Remove from Flow is the documented mechanism for ejecting people from an in-progress campaign flow, especially people sitting in waits. Remove from Flow

    What I would say safely: When a batch campaign is aborted, people already processed keep whatever already happened, and people who were still mid-flow do not automatically resume from where they left off just because the campaign is run again. In practice, I would not assume an aborted run can simply be "continued" by rerunning the batch.

    If you want those people to go through the logic again, the safest approach is to treat them as needing a fresh entry into the campaign flow. Whether they can re-qualify depends on the campaign's qualification setting (for example, run once vs. every time), but if there is any doubt about people being stuck in an old in-progress state, using Remove from Flow first is the cleanest option. Remove from Flow

    So my short answer would be:

    • No, I would not expect "frozen" members to just pick up where they left off on a later batch run.
    • Maybe they can qualify again on a new run, depending on qualification settings.
    • If you need a clean rerun, the safest pattern is to remove them from the old flow first, then let them qualify again or run them through a replacement batch campaign.
    SanfordWhiteman
    SanfordWhiteman
    Level 10
    July 9, 2026

    Well… you never need Remove from Flow if the last run was shut down, which you can see quickly in the UI. It’s impossible for people to be in a previously shutdown campaign, that’s implying Abort Campaign doesn’t work (which it does!).

     

    Even though it’s harmless, I’m not really into belt-and-suspenders-just-in-case approaches because eventually the “just in case” turns into active FUD. Then people end up with unnecessary “cleanup” steps cluttering flows. (Similar to how they end up with unnecessary Wait steps.)

    BlaneMcMichen-1
    Adobe Employee
    BlaneMcMichen-1Adobe Employee
    Adobe Employee
    July 9, 2026

    Sure. That’s fair. 

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