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Publish your first post

A post moves through exactly four states: draft → queued → live | failed. Nothing publishes without an explicit confirmation - Compose always shows a plan before it creates anything, the same invariant the API (POST /posts/plan before POST /posts) and MCP (dropslate_plan_post before dropslate_create_post) enforce. This page walks through a first, deliberately safe post and how to confirm it on the network.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”
  • One connected account with the status Connected - Choose your first network.
  • One file in Media with the status ready, or a file on your computer that fits the network - Media requirements.
  • For a safe test: on YouTube set Visibility to Unlisted or Private; on Instagram, Facebook and Threads a test post is public the moment it is live, so plan to delete it on the network afterwards.

Steps

Section titled “Steps”

  1. Click New post. Under Media, drop a file or click Choose from the library. The card shows the file’s shape, duration and size, and one verdict per target network once you pick targets.

  2. Write the Base caption. It goes to every network unless a network’s tab overrides it. Add Tags if the network uses them - YouTube keeps them as video tags, Instagram and Facebook write them into the caption as hashtags, Threads takes one topic instead.

  3. Under Targets, pick the account, or a group. A tab appears for each network among the targets, with only the fields that network accepts: YouTube asks for a Title and a Visibility; Instagram for a Content type (Reel, Post, Carousel, Story); Facebook for a content type and, for a text post, a Link; Threads for a Topic.

    The YouTube tab in the composer: Title, Description and Tags with Same as base toggles, Visibility, Made for kids, a thumbnail choice, Notify subscribers, Category, Playlist and More YouTube settings.

  4. Under When, choose Now or At a time and pick a date and time. Times are read in the workspace’s time zone, shown next to the field; a scheduled time must be at least 2 minutes ahead and at most a year out.

  5. Click Schedule (or Publish now). The Plan dialog opens: one row per account with the network, the time and a check - ok, or the code and message of what would fail. Nothing has been created. Read the rows, then click Confirm.

    The plan dialog: one row per account with the network, the time and a check mark, a note on the monthly quota, and Back and Confirm buttons.

What you see next

Section titled “What you see next”

Dropslate answers Queued: 1. and the post is in Queue as queued, and on Calendar at its slot. At the time, the worker sends it. Within a minute or two the row becomes live with View it live - open it and check the post on the network itself - or failed with What the network said. A YouTube video scheduled for later is created on the channel immediately as scheduled and goes public at the time by YouTube’s own clock.

Common errors

Section titled “Common errors”
Error Cause Fix
A plan row shows caption_too_long, title_too_long or tags_too_long Over the network’s limit in its unit. Shorten the field; the counter in that network’s tab shows the unit.
A plan row shows aspect_unsupported or media_kind The file’s shape or kind is not accepted for that content type. Choose another content type (a video goes to Reel, not Post) or another file.
media_not_ready The file is still processing. Wait for ready; do not upload it again.
publish_in_past or publish_too_far The time is less than 2 minutes ahead, or more than a year out. Pick a time inside that window.
quota_exceeded The monthly post limit is reached. Wait for next month, or upgrade - Plans & pricing.
failed after the scheduled time The network rejected the send. Read the network’s message in the post, fix the cause, click Retry - Why did my post fail?
Section titled “Related”