Most integrations authenticate with a token tied to one person's account, and that token expires, gets revoked when a password changes, or breaks when permissions are edited. The disconnection itself is routine. The damage comes from reporting that keeps serving the last numbers it had without saying the connection is gone.
What actually causes the break?
Usually a person, not a platform. Connections authenticate as whoever authorised them, so anything that changes that person's access changes the connection.
- A password reset, which revokes existing tokens.
- Someone leaving and their account being deactivated.
- Permissions edited on the ad or analytics account.
- A token reaching its natural expiry.
- The platform changing its API scopes and requiring re-consent.
Why is silent failure the real problem?
Because a dashboard that stops updating looks identical to a quiet month. The numbers are still there, the charts still draw, and the only clue is a flat line nobody questions until a client does.
A report that states when each source last synced turns an invisible failure into an obvious one. That is worth more than any amount of retry logic.
How do you reduce how often it happens?
Authorise with an account that belongs to the business rather than an individual, and give it a role that is not routinely edited.
Connections authorised by whoever happened to be in the room break when that person changes job. It is the single most common cause and the easiest to design out.
What should happen when it does break?
Someone should be told, immediately and by name. An alert that goes to a shared inbox nobody watches is the same as no alert.
Re-authorising is usually quick. The expensive part is the days of missing data before anyone noticed, which is why detection matters more than recovery.
Frequently asked questions
- Does reconnecting recover the missing data?
- Usually yes, by backfilling once the connection is restored, though how far back depends on the platform's own retention limits.
- Can this be avoided entirely?
- No. Tokens expiring is a security feature, not a defect. The achievable goal is fast detection rather than a connection that never breaks.
- Does NexPulse show connection status?
- Yes. Sync progress is visible in real time while it runs, and each connection reports when it last synced.