Common problems and their fixes, grouped by what you were setting up. Most first-run issues come down to a service that is not connected yet or a value that is set in one place but not another. Work through the section that matches your symptom.
Jump to a symptom: email · live video · payments · web app and backend · notifications
Email Not Sending
Members are not getting verification, invite, reset, or notification emails.
- Confirm the provider is configured. The email system needs your provider connected and its API key set in your environment. If the key is missing, no mail leaves the instance.
- Verify your sending domain. Your domain must be verified with your email provider, with the SPF and DKIM records your provider gives you set at your DNS host. Unverified domains get blocked or dropped before the inbox.
- Check the From address. The address you send from must belong to the verified domain. A mismatch fails authentication.
- Read the provider's activity log. If a test send left the app but never arrived, your provider's log usually shows the bounce or block and the reason.
See Custom Domain and Branding for the branded-email setup.
Live Video Not Connecting
A live event will not start, or members cannot join the stream.
- Confirm the video provider keys are set. Live video runs through a third-party real-time video provider (Daily.co) connected with your own account. If its keys are missing or wrong in your environment, the session cannot be created.
- Confirm the host chose to record. The host chooses whether to record with the Record this meeting switch, or starts recording inside the meeting. Recordings stay in your Daily.co account, with no separate storage to connect. If a recording is slow to attach, check the recording webhook in Live Video Setup.
- Check camera and microphone permissions. If one participant cannot join, have them confirm the browser has granted camera and mic access on your domain.
Payments Failing
Checkout will not complete, or subscriptions are not activating.
- Confirm your Stripe keys are set. Member payments run through your own Stripe account. The secret key and the webhook signing secret must be present in your environment, and they must be from the same Stripe account and the same mode.
- Match test and live mode. A live-mode key paired with a test-mode price, or the reverse, fails every charge. Keep the whole set on one mode.
- Set up the Stripe webhook. Subscription lifecycle events - activation, renewal, cancellation, payment failure - arrive by webhook. If the webhook endpoint or its signing secret is wrong, payments may succeed at Stripe while your community never hears about them. Re-copy the endpoint URL and the signing secret from Stripe.
- A fully refunded member keeps access. Your community removes access after a full refund or a lost chargeback only when the webhook sends
charge.refunded and charge.dispute.closed, and earlier copies of the setup guide left them out. Add both to your endpoint's events in Stripe, for Test mode and Live mode, along with checkout.session.async_payment_succeeded if it is missing. See Payments and Stripe Setup.
The Web App Cannot Reach the Backend
The site loads but data never appears, or every action errors.
- Check the backend URL. The web app needs the environment value that points it at your backend deployment. If it is empty, pointed at a local address in production, or pointed at the wrong deployment, the app has nothing to talk to.
- Confirm the backend is deployed. Make sure your backend deployment is live and healthy, not just your web app.
- Set values on the right environment. A value set on your machine but not on your production host is the most common cause of "works locally, breaks in production." Set it on the production deployment and redeploy.
- Sign-in fails with a "verification" error right after an update. If you use Cloudflare Turnstile, sign-in can fail in the minutes between deploying the backend and redeploying the website. Deploy the two back to back and it clears once both are live.
Members Not Receiving Notifications
Activity is happening but members are not being notified.
- In-app works, email does not. This is almost always the email setup above. Fix email first.
- Push is silent. That is expected. The platform registers device push tokens and ships per-type push preferences, but a push sender is not included - delivering to APNs or FCM is buyer work. See Mobile Apps for iOS and Android.
- Check per-type preferences. Members choose which notification types reach each channel. A member who muted a type, or a conversation, will not be notified for it - that is working as intended.
- Some members get few notifications by design. Banned and suspended members get none, and members who have not finished paying only get billing notices and sign-up reminders.
- Digests are batched. Daily and weekly digest emails summarize activity on a schedule rather than firing instantly, so a missing digest may simply not be due yet.
FAQ
Do I have to update when a new release ships?
No. You own the source, so you decide when and whether to apply a release. If you do, follow the IMPORTANT steps in the changelog for each version you skip past. See Updating Your Instance.
Where does my data actually live?
In your own backend and storage accounts, on infrastructure you control. You can export it any time. See Backups and Data Ownership.
Does Seedly take a cut of membership revenue?
No. Payments run through your own Stripe account and the platform adds 0% in transaction fees.
Can members really see nothing branded as Seedly?
Correct. Your domain, logo, colors, emails, and app icon are all yours. See Custom Domain and Branding.
The mobile app feels like the website. Is that a bug?
No. The iOS and Android apps are Capacitor shells that wrap the responsive web app. That is by design - see Mobile Apps for iOS and Android.
Which currencies can members pay in?
USD and GBP. Every price field in the platform carries both, and members pick their currency preference.
When in Doubt, Never
- Never restore a full data backup over a live backend without taking a current export of that live data first.
- Never commit an environment file or any secret to source control.
- Never run a data migration against production without a current backup in hand.
- Never delete a backend deployment or storage bucket unless you are certain - those are one-way actions.