Why do accounts get restricted, and how do you avoid it?

What restriction actually is

The account is still there and still holds everything in it. What systeme.io disables are the functions that bring in something new: opt-ins, payments, imports, sales, fresh automation triggers, newsletters and parts of course access.

The risk is loss of function, not loss of content.

The two causes

systeme.io names two situations, and no others.

• Passing the contact limit set by the current plan.
• Passing a feature limit after a change of plan. That covers cancelling a paid subscription and reverting to the free plan, and moving down from a higher tier to a lower one.

Both are about size against the plan. Neither is a judgement on the business.

The warning comes first

Nothing happens the moment a limit is passed. A pre-restriction period runs instead: three warning emails, one a day, and an alert on the dashboard.

If no action is taken by the fourth day, the restriction is applied automatically.

What stops working

On the free plan a final warning email confirms that the account has been restricted, and a permanent alert is displayed on the dashboard.

What keeps working

Automations and workflows that were already running continue. Students keep the lectures they had unlocked. Every funnel, course, blog and contact is still in the account.

Not deleted is not the same as still working, and the table above is the difference between the two.

The rule that catches people out

Time does not pause. Drip days keep counting during a restriction, so a delay set between lectures still runs down while the emails are held. Once the restriction ends, only the last email for the last unlocked lecture is sent.

Scheduled newsletters are worse. A send date that falls inside a restriction is removed for good rather than delayed, and an in-app notification is left for each newsletter affected. systeme.io does this deliberately, so that out of date emails do not go out on their own once the account is working again.

How to avoid it

• Watch Settings, then My plan. Items over the limit are shown in red there.
• Upgrade to a plan that fits, which raises both the contact limit and the feature limits.
• Remove enough funnels, courses, contacts or other counted assets to fit the plan before a downgrade, not after.
• Deactivate any funnel that is not in use. systeme.io support states a deactivated funnel is not counted against the plan limits, and it can be switched back on later.
• Clean the contact list when the limit that is close is the contact one.

On a paid plan it works differently

A paid account that goes over its limits is not restricted. The subscription is upgraded automatically to the next tier so that service continues without a break.

That turns a limits problem into a billing one. Coming back down means clearing the excess first, then asking support for the downgrade.

The one thing that does remove content

Restriction never deletes anything. Inactivity can. systeme.io states that content may be permanently removed after 6 months with no login and no activity on the account.