Guide: Follow a task: pause, resume, stop and retry
This page: https://commentwatchdog.com/help/post-cleanup/follow-a-task-pause-resume-stop-and-retry
Topic: Post cleanup and tasks
Time: about 3 minutes
Who can do it: Anyone on your team
Author: https://anantgupta.xyz (Anant Gupta, founder of CommentWatchDog)
Start in the app: https://app.commentwatchdog.com/en/tools/tasks
Result when done: You can see exactly what a background job did, comment by comment, and finish what it could not.
Context: Every bulk hide or delete becomes a task. Tasks survive closing the page, run at the pace Meta allows, and keep the outcome of every single comment, including what Meta said when one failed.

Before you start:
1. A task keeps running when you close the page, and emails you when it is done.
2. Failures are kept with their reason rather than hidden.
3. Retry failed runs only the ones that did not succeed.

Steps:
Step 1 of 4: Open Tasks.
Where: Tools, then Tasks. Every sweep is listed with its page, what it was doing, its progress and its status: Running, Paused, Done or Stopped.
Link: https://app.commentwatchdog.com/en/tools/tasks (Open Tasks)
Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/tasks.en.webp (Tools, then Tasks.)
Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/tasks-phone.en.webp (The same on a phone.)
You should see: A row per job, searchable, and filterable by page or by whether it had failures.

Step 2 of 4: Control a running job.
Where: Pause holds it; Resume continues from where it stopped; Stop ends it and keeps what was already done. A job that Meta is slowing shows Working at a safe pace and continues by itself.
Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/cleanup-active.en.webp (Pause, Resume and Stop on a running job.)
Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/cleanup-active-phone.en.webp (The same on a phone.)
You should see: The status changes immediately, and nothing already done is undone.

Step 3 of 4: Read what happened to each comment.
Where: Open a task. Each item shows Done or Failed, and a failure shows what Meta said, for example that the object no longer exists. Copy task ID is there for support.
Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/tasks-detail.en.webp (What happened to each comment, with Failed where it did.)
Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/tasks-detail-phone.en.webp (The same on a phone.)
You should see: An honest record, comment by comment, rather than one number.

Step 4 of 4: Retry what failed.
Where: Retry failed, on the task. It runs only the items that did not succeed, so nothing is done twice.
Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/tasks.en.webp (Retry failed, on a task with failures.)
Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/tasks-retry-phone.en.webp (The same on a phone.)
You should see: A new attempt on the failures alone, with its own outcome.

If something is off:
Problem: A task says Meta rate limit
Fix: Meta is limiting actions for that page. The task waits and continues by itself.
Problem: A task says page access expired
Fix: The page lost its connection to Facebook. Reconnect it on the Pages tab, then retry the failures.
Problem: Every item failed
Fix: Usually the post was deleted, or the page connection expired. The reason is on each item.
Problem: I cannot find my task
Fix: Filter by page, or search. Tasks started from the inbox are marked Inbox, those from cleanup are marked Post cleanup.

Common questions:
Question: If I stop a task, is what it already did undone?
Answer: No. Stop ends the job and keeps what was already done; nothing already hidden or deleted is reversed. Pause holds it and Resume continues from where it stopped.
Question: Does Retry failed redo the comments that already succeeded?
Answer: No. Retry failed runs only the items that did not succeed, so nothing is done twice, and the new attempt has its own outcome.
Question: What should I send support when a task goes wrong?
Answer: The task ID. Copy task ID is on the task page, next to the per-item outcomes that show Done or Failed and what Meta said for each failure.
Question: Will I be told when a background task finishes?
Answer: Yes. A task keeps running when you close the page and emails you when it is done. On a phone, push notifications also cover finished jobs.

Related guides:
- Delete or hide comments in bulk: https://commentwatchdog.com/help/post-cleanup/delete-or-hide-comments-in-bulk
- Why a reply was queued, and how to cancel it: https://commentwatchdog.com/help/inbox/why-a-reply-was-queued-and-how-to-cancel-it
- A page shows Disconnected: https://commentwatchdog.com/help/troubleshooting/a-page-shows-disconnected

Plain text of this guide: https://commentwatchdog.com/help/post-cleanup/follow-a-task-pause-resume-stop-and-retry.md
All guides for assistants: https://commentwatchdog.com/help/llms.txt