ℹ️ What this tutorial is about

Once a journey is live, you may occasionally need to update it — whether that’s refining content, adjusting timing, or improving logic.

This guide explains what you can safely edit while a journey is active, and what to consider before making changes.

Before you start

When a journey is active, subscribers may already be moving through different steps.

Changes you make can affect:

Subscribers who haven’t entered the journey yet
Subscribers currently waiting in a step
Subscribers who have already passed certain stages

Because of this, it’s important to understand how edits apply.

⚠️ Turning a journey off prevents new subscribers from entering it, but subscribers already in the journey will continue to move through the steps "silently", where the journey will not send them emails, or update their custom fields. This ensures the journey's timing is sustained for that subscriber, even while the journey is off.

What you can edit in an active journey

You can update most elements of an active journey without needing to turn it off.

Email content

You can edit the content of emails at any time. Your new version is automatically saved as a draft while you make changes.

Subscribers moving through the journey while you are making changes will continue to be sent the old version of the email. To start sending the new version, click Preview, then save, then Save & return to journey.

Any subscriber who reaches that email step after you publish your changes will receive the updated version. Subscribers who have already received the email will not be affected.

How to publish changes (screenshots)

Step 1 - Preview and continue

Clicking just this, or pressing return does not publish your changes, only a draft is saved.

Step 2 - Save & return to journey

Once you click this and return to the journey view, your changes are published.

To continue sending the old version and work on the draft later, you can return to the journey by clicking Return at the top left. Next time you edit the email content, your draft will load.

💡 Tip: If you’re planning significant structural changes, it’s may be cleaner to duplicate the journey, make your changes, then activate the new version and deactivate the old one. Note that any users currently in the old journey may not enter the new one depending on your trigger, thus won't "continue" through the new journey.

Delete email steps

You can delete steps at any time. However, you can't delete an email step if it's used in a journey activity condition, either in the current journey you're editing or a different one.

Edit delay steps

If you edit a delay step in an active journey, every subscriber currently at that delay step will still use the original delay time. Subscribers who enter the delay step after the change will use the new delay time.

Delete delay steps

If you delete a delay step in an active journey, every subscriber currently at that delay step will be removed from the journey and will not receive any following emails.

💡 Tip: If you need to remove a delay, try to do so when there are no subscribers waiting at that step. If that’s not possible, instead of deleting the step, set the length of the delay to zero. This ensures that no subscribers are removed from the journey.

Edit wait until steps

If you edit a wait until step in an active journey, subscribers already at that step will continue waiting until the original start time. Once that time arrives, the new start and end times will determine whether they can progress through the step.

Delete wait until steps

If you delete a wait until step in an active journey, every subscriber currently at that step will be removed from the journey and will not receive any following emails.

💡 Tip: If you need to remove a wait until step, try to do so when there are no subscribers waiting at that step. If that’s not possible, instead of deleting the step, set the start time to 12:00 AM, the end time to 11:59 PM, and ensure this applies to every day of the week.

Journey triggers

You can adjust entry triggers in some cases.

However, changing a trigger does not retroactively add people who would have previously qualified. It only affects new subscribers moving forward.

If you need past subscribers to enter under new criteria, you may need to manually add them or create a new journey.

Delete condition steps

A condition step can't be deleted until all steps below the "Yes" or "No" path have been deleted. After removing the "Yes" or "No" path, the condition can then be deleted, with the steps below the remaining path moving to the previous step.

Edit custom field steps

When you modify the configuration of a custom field step, the change will take effect within one minute, and apply to subscribers who arrive at the step after that point.

Delete a journey

To delete an entire journey, click Automation in the top navigation, click the three-dot icon for the journey you want to delete, then choose Delete from the menu that appears.