When an account stops updating

An account that has quietly stopped updating looks almost exactly like one that is working. The balance is still there, the transactions are still there, and the page looks healthy. What has changed is that nothing new is arriving — and SageFin says so, in a place that is easy to read the wrong way.

This page explains what it is actually telling you.

Open the account and read the Connection status card

Go to Accounts and click the account. On the right, under Summary, is a card headed Connection status with three rows. Each one carries a small circled i you can click for the same explanation you are reading here.

The three rows answer three different questions, and the most common mistake is to read one of them as the answer to another.

Last update

When data last arrived — not when SageFin last tried.

This is the row that misleads. A connection that broke a week ago still shows the day it last worked, and on its own that date looks perfectly fine. "Updated 6 days ago" does not mean the connection is healthy; it means six days ago was the last time anything got through.

Read it alongside Status. Neither row is the whole answer by itself.

Status

Whether the sign-in still works. Which is not the same as the data being current — a connection can say Institution Connected and still be days behind.

There are four states behind that row:

Connected — the sign-in works. If an update is running right now, the card says so instead; that is the sync queue rather than the connection, and a working connection can sit idle for days while a broken one can still be queued.
Needs reconnection — your bank wants you to sign in again. This is the common one, and the next section is about it.
Error — the last attempt to fetch data failed. What is already here stays; new transactions and balances do not. It often clears on its own.
Disconnected — the connection has been ended. Everything already imported stays exactly where it is, and nothing new arrives unless you reconnect.

Data provider

Who actually holds the connection to your bank.

SageFin does not sign in to your bank. A data provider — Plaid, or Finicity — does, and it is their screen you type your bank credentials into, not ours. We never see them.

This row names that company. It is worth knowing, because it is the answer to "who has my bank login", and because the provider is what decides how a reconnection behaves.

This is the single most confusing normal event in SageFin, so it is worth being clear that it is normal, and that it is not something going wrong.

When you connect a bank, you grant access — and that access expires. Sometimes it expires on a schedule your bank sets. Sometimes it ends because you changed your password, enabled two-factor authentication, or your bank asked you to re-confirm access on its own site. In every case the result is the same: the provider can no longer get in, and SageFin shows Needs reconnection.

Nothing already in SageFin is lost. Every transaction, balance and category you already have stays exactly where it is. Your budgets, rules and history are untouched. What stops is the flow of anything new.

Reconnecting

When a connection needs it, a Reconnect button appears on the Connection status card. Click it and your provider's window opens, usually asking only for the part that expired — often just a password, or a code your bank texts you.

You are not starting over. You are re-authorizing a connection SageFin already has, so:

Your existing transactions stay put, and are not imported a second time.
Your account keeps the name, category and settings you gave it.
Nothing you have customized is reset.

If you want to update a connection that has not broken — a new password you have already changed, say — the same flow is in the ⋯ menu on that card as Update login settings.

When reconnecting does not fix it

A few things that are worth trying, in the order they are worth trying them.

Refresh first. The ⋯ menu on the Connection status card has a Refresh, which asks for an update now rather than waiting for the next scheduled one. If the problem was a single failed attempt, this is the whole fix.

Give an Error state a little time. Error often means the bank was briefly unavailable rather than anything about your account. If it is still there the next day, treat it as a reconnection.

Check the bank's own site. Some banks require you to approve third-party access from inside online banking, and will keep refusing until you do. If your bank has a "connected apps" or "data sharing" page, look there.

Then write to us. The same ⋯ menu has Contact support, which opens an email with the subject already filled in. Tell us which institution it is and what the Status row says.

Accounts that cannot stop updating

Two kinds of account never show any of this, because there is no connection to break.

Manual accounts you keep up to date yourself. Nothing syncs them, so the balance changes only when you change it. That is why their Connection status card says there is no provider.

Apple Card works differently again — it is read on your iPhone rather than by a provider, and it has its own page.