Common Issues

Volunteer signup issues

"Shift is no longer available"

This means someone else booked the last spot while the volunteer was completing signup. Shifts are held temporarily during registration, but holds expire if signup takes too long.

Solution: Go back to the shift selection page, choose a different shift or time slot, and complete signup. If all shifts at that location are full, try a nearby location or join the waitlist if available.

For admins: If this is happening frequently, consider increasing the desired volunteer count for high-demand shifts, or enabling waitlisting so volunteers can queue up instead of being turned away.

Volunteer didn't receive confirmation email

After signing up and verifying their email, volunteers should receive a welcome/confirmation email.

If they didn't receive it:

1. Check spam/junk folder — this solves most cases, especially for first-time volunteers
2. Check promotions tab — Gmail often routes transactional emails to the Promotions tab
3. Verify the email address is correct in the admin portal — typos are common
4. Check email delivery logs in Messaging > Templates — click the template and check the statistics tab for bounces or delivery failures
5. Resend manually — from the volunteer's profile in the admin portal, resend the email
6. Check if the template is enabled — go to Messaging > Templates and confirm the welcome email template is turned on for this campaign

Volunteer signed up but shows as "Unverified"

The volunteer completed the registration form but never clicked the verification link in their email.

Why this happens:

• They may not have checked their email
• The verification email went to spam
• They entered the wrong email address
• Their corporate email blocked the login link

What to do:

1. Check the email address is correct
2. Resend the verification email from their profile
3. If the volunteer is present (e.g., on event day), a coordinator can add them directly from the roster — no verification needed

Duplicate volunteer registration

If a volunteer tries to sign up with an email that's already registered:

• PurposeTech prompts them to sign in instead — they're not creating a new account
• Their existing bookings are preserved
• They can add new shift bookings to their existing account

What if they signed up with different emails? Use the Merge Tool to combine both records. All shift assignments, feedback, and referrals are transferred to the winning record.

Volunteer can't complete registration on mobile

If volunteers report the signup page not working on mobile:

1. Check browser compatibility — PurposeTech works on all modern mobile browsers (Safari, Chrome, Firefox). Very old browser versions may have issues
2. Disable ad blockers — some ad blockers interfere with form submissions
3. Check connectivity — poor mobile reception can cause timeouts during registration
4. Check if the site is private — if the campaign requires a password, make sure they have it

Volunteer wants to change their personal details

Volunteers can update their name, email, and phone number by signing in on the campaign site. If they can't sign in:

1. An admin can update their details from the admin portal
2. If they used the wrong email and can't log in, an admin can change their email in the volunteer's profile

Shift management issues

Can't add more volunteers to a shift

The shift has reached its capacity limit (desired volunteer count). Options:

Volunteer can't cancel their shift

Volunteers can cancel shifts through the campaign site while signed in. If they're having trouble:

1. Make sure they're signed in — they need to click the login link in their email
2. Check if shift cancellation is enabled for the campaign — some organisations disable self-service cancellation close to the event
3. Check if the shift has already passed — past shifts can't be cancelled
4. An admin can cancel on their behalf from the admin portal if the volunteer is unable to

Shifts not showing on the campaign site

If shifts aren't visible to volunteers, check these in order:

Visibility cascades: if the area is hidden, all jobs and shifts in that area are hidden too, even if their individual settings say "visible."

Shifts showing wrong time to volunteers

Time zone mismatches can cause confusion:

• PurposeTech stores shift times in the campaign's configured time zone
• Volunteers see times in the campaign's time zone (not their local time)
• Make sure your campaign is set to the correct time zone in campaign settings

Volunteer appears in the wrong shift

If a volunteer is showing up in a shift they didn't sign up for:

1. Check if an admin or coordinator moved them — the Move Tool reassigns volunteers between shifts
2. Check if they were bulk assigned during a CSV import
3. Check the audit log for the volunteer's record to see what happened

Roster issues

Coordinator can't see their site

Area coordinators only see sites within their assigned areas. If a coordinator reports a missing site:

1. Check they're assigned to the correct area (not just the region)
2. Check the area assignment is active — assignments can be date-specific
3. Check the job exists and is confirmed — draft or cancelled jobs may not appear
4. Try having them log out and back in — session data occasionally needs refreshing

"Add Volunteer" button is disabled

This happens when:

• The shift has passed (expired) — coordinators can't add to expired shifts. Admins can override this
• The region is cancelled — cancelled regions put the roster in read-only mode for coordinators
• The shift is full — all desired volunteer slots are filled. Increase capacity or use force assign (admin only)

Roster data not updating

The roster fetches data when you load the page. If changes made by another user aren't appearing:

1. Refresh the page — pull-to-refresh on mobile, or F5/Cmd+R on desktop
2. Check connectivity — poor reception can prevent data loading
3. Changes made by other coordinators or admins should appear within seconds of a page refresh

Email delivery issues

Volunteers not receiving emails

Start with the most common causes:

1. Spam/junk folder — the single most common issue
2. Gmail Promotions tab — Google often routes these emails to Promotions, not Primary
3. Wrong email address — check for typos in the admin portal
4. Corporate email filters — corporate mail systems may block emails with login links (potential phishing)
5. Full mailbox — the recipient's mailbox is full (soft bounce)
6. Invalid email — the email address doesn't exist (hard bounce)

To investigate:

1. Go to Messaging > Templates
2. Click on the email template that should have been sent
3. Check the statistics for delivery status, bounces, and opens

High bounce rate

If you're seeing a high bounce rate on a bulk import, it may indicate old or invalid email data in your CSV. Consider cleaning your data before re-importing.

Emails going to spam

PurposeTech's email infrastructure has proper SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configured for high deliverability. If volunteers report emails landing in spam:

1. Ask them to check junk/spam and mark the email as "Not spam" — this trains their email provider
2. Ask them to add your sender address to contacts — prevents future spam classification
3. Check your sender domain — if using a custom sender address, make sure your domain's DNS records are configured correctly
4. Avoid spam trigger words in email subject lines — "FREE", "ACT NOW", "URGENT" can trigger filters
5. Contact support@purposetech.io if the problem persists — we can check delivery logs and sender reputation

Email sent but volunteer says they didn't get it

1. Check the delivery logs — did the email actually send?
2. If it shows as delivered, the email reached their mail server. The issue is on their end (spam filter, wrong inbox)
3. If it shows as bounced, the email couldn't be delivered — check the bounce reason
4. If it shows as queued, the email hasn't sent yet — check the scheduling config
5. Resend from the volunteer's profile as a quick fix

Salesforce sync issues

Sync is not running

1. Check that sync is enabled in Settings > Sync Configuration
2. Verify that Salesforce credentials are still valid — OAuth tokens can expire
3. Check for sync errors in the admin portal logs
4. If credentials expired, re-authenticate the Salesforce connection

Records not syncing

If specific records aren't appearing in the other system:

• Check the sync conflict log for errors related to those records
• Verify the record has all required fields filled in on both sides
• Check that the record was modified after the last sync — incremental sync only processes changes
• Confirm the sync direction is correct — if set to "one-way import", PurposeTech records won't push to Salesforce

Sync conflicts piling up

A large number of conflicts usually indicates a data quality issue:

Review and resolve conflicts in Settings > Sync Conflicts. Resolving the underlying data issue prevents the same conflicts from recurring.

Admin portal issues

Can't switch tenants

Only Owner role users can switch between tenants. If you need access to another tenant:

• Ask your organisation's Owner to switch for you
• Or ask them to grant you Owner access if you need regular cross-tenant access

Settings changes not taking effect

Some settings (branding, email templates, header/footer) may take a moment to propagate:

1. Hard refresh the page — Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows)
2. Clear your browser cache — cached styles or templates may show old values
3. Check in an incognito window — this eliminates cache issues entirely
4. Wait a few minutes — some changes (like custom domain SSL) take a few minutes

Admin portal loading slowly

If the admin portal is sluggish:

1. Check your internet connection — slow connections affect page loads
2. Try a different browser — some browser extensions can slow things down
3. Check the campaign size — very large campaigns (1,000+ jobs) may take longer to load certain views
4. Reduce the time range — for large datasets, narrow the date filter to reduce the data being loaded

Can't find a volunteer

If you're searching for a volunteer and can't find them:

1. Search by email — more reliable than name search (names have variations)
2. Check the campaign — volunteers are campaign-specific. Make sure you're looking at the right campaign
3. Check spelling — try partial matches (e.g., "jane" instead of "Jane Smith")
4. Check status filter — if you're filtering by status, the volunteer may have a different status than expected

Still stuck?

If you can't find a solution here:

• Browse the FAQ for quick answers to common questions
• Check the specific guide for the feature you're using
• Contact PurposeTech support at support@purposetech.io
• Visit our Support page to submit a request