PostWharf, the publishing tool we make, tells you when a sign-in ends instead of leaving you to find out from an empty feed. The channel is marked on the Channels screen, the composer warns you before you send a post to it, and every owner of the workspace gets an email naming the account and the posts that missed it.
How long a sign-in lasts on each network
Every figure below comes from the network's own developer documentation, read on 10 November 2026, for the ten networks PostWharf publishes to. Networks change these terms, and Meta's token guide says outright that its lifetimes can change without warning, so read the table as the position on that date.
| Network | How long the sign-in lasts | What ends it early | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| The connecting person's long-lived token lasts about 60 days. A Page token made from it has no expiry date. | That person logs out of the app, changes their Facebook password or removes the app, or Meta invalidates the token after a security event. Meta does not notify the app. | Long-lived tokens, token errors | |
| 60 days, renewable for another 60 once the token is at least 24 hours old. An account connected through Facebook Login runs on the Facebook sign-in in the row above. | 60 days with no renewal. After that the token cannot be refreshed. | Business Login for Instagram, platform overview | |
| Threads | 60 days, renewable on the same terms. The first token issued lasts one hour. | 60 days with no renewal. | Threads long-lived tokens |
| 60 days. Where LinkedIn has enabled refresh tokens for the tool, 365 days from the day you connected, and renewing does not restart that year. | The tool asking for a different set of permissions, which invalidates the tokens it held before. LinkedIn also reserves the right to revoke tokens at any time. | Authorization code flow, refresh tokens | |
| TikTok | Access token 2 hours, refresh token 180 days. Each renewal issues a new refresh token. | The account holder disconnecting the app. A tool that reuses a replaced refresh token is refused, and the person has to authorize again. | User access token management |
| X | Access token two hours. With the offline.access permission the tool also gets a refresh token, and X describes that permission as keeping the app connected until you revoke access. Tokens issued under OAuth 1.0a do not expire. | The account holder revoking the app's access. | OAuth 2.0 flow, OAuth 1.0a tokens |
| YouTube | No fixed date. Google issues short-lived access tokens and a long-lived refresh token that renews them. | The refresh token going unused for six months. The person removing the app's access. The account passing 100 live refresh tokens for one app, which cancels the oldest without warning. A 7-day limit while the tool's Google project is in Testing status. | Google OAuth 2.0, YouTube authentication |
| Access token 30 days. Refresh token 60 days, renewable indefinitely as long as each renewal happens inside the 60. | No cause we could confirm from Pinterest's documentation. | Authentication and authorization | |
| Bluesky | An app password, which Bluesky's documentation gives no end date. The session made from it is short: the access token expires after a few minutes and a longer-lived refresh token renews it. | Revoking the app password. Accounts create and revoke app passwords separately from the main password. | Bluesky API guide, AT Protocol HTTP spec |
| Telegram | A bot token, which Telegram's documentation gives no end date. | The token being revoked in @BotFather, which Telegram says can happen at any time. The connection also depends on the bot staying a channel administrator with the right to post messages. | Bot tutorial, Bot features, Bot API |
Two kinds of clock sit in that table. A renewable one (Instagram, Threads, Pinterest) only reaches you when a renewal is missed. A fixed one does not move: LinkedIn's own worked example has a tool that renews on day 360 left with five days on both tokens, after which the member has to authorize again.
Why a connection has an end date at all
When you connect an account, the network shows its own consent screen and hands the tool a token in place of your password. Many networks issue two. A short access token does the posting and lasts hours: two on TikTok and X, one for a first Threads token. A longer refresh token lets the tool collect a new access token without asking you again.
You never see those swaps, which is why a connection can look permanent for months. It stops looking permanent on the day the longer token runs out, or the day the network refuses the swap.
The sign-in reached its end date
This is the predictable cause, and the one behind a reconnect request that arrives on a rhythm. Instagram and Threads give 60 days, and both let a tool extend that for another 60 as long as it asks while the token is still valid. LinkedIn gives 60 days and, for tools it has enabled refresh tokens for, a year measured from the day you connected. Pinterest gives 30 days on the access token and 60 on the refresh token.
If one network asks you to reconnect every two months, ask the tool's support whether it renews the sign-in before the 60 days are up. The network allows it on Instagram, Threads and Pinterest. A yearly LinkedIn reconnect is different: that limit is LinkedIn's, and no tool can renew past it.
The tool could not renew it
Renewal has rules, and a tool that misses one loses the connection even though nothing changed on your side.
- The window closed. Meta will not exchange or refresh a token that has already expired. On Instagram and Threads a token left unrefreshed for 60 days is finished, and the only way back is the login screen.
- The refresh token was replaced. TikTok issues a new refresh token at every renewal. A tool that keeps using the old one is refused.
- The same account was connected too many times. Google keeps at most 100 live refresh tokens per Google Account for one app. The next connection cancels the oldest one, and Google's documentation says this happens without warning.
- The permissions changed. On LinkedIn, a tool that asks for a different set of permissions invalidates the tokens it already held.
Something on the account ended it early
These are the disconnects that feel random, because the trigger happened somewhere other than the scheduling tool.
A password change. Meta's error guide gives one response for a person who logged out of the app or changed their password. Google is narrower: a password change ends a refresh token only when it carries Gmail permissions, which a YouTube publishing connection has no reason to hold.
A removed app. Meta, Google, LinkedIn, TikTok and X all document the account holder taking an app's access away, and on Bluesky and Telegram the equivalent is revoking the app password or the bot token. A security review that clears out unfamiliar apps can do this by accident.
A lost Page role. Meta issues a Page token only through a person who has a role on that Page, so the connection belongs to whoever clicked Connect. When that person leaves the business or is taken off the Page, plan to reconnect through someone who still holds a role. Who that should be is a business-settings question, covered in our guide to Facebook Business Manager setup.
Inactivity. Google stops honouring a refresh token that has gone unused for six months. Meta ends an app's access to a person's data 90 days after that person was last active, and separately says a permission the app has not used for 90 days may expire.
Two accounts on one sign-in. An Instagram account connected through Facebook Login runs on a Facebook token. Anything that ends the Facebook sign-in takes the Instagram connection with it, so the two drop on the same day.
Why you find out late
Meta's documentation says it will not notify an app when a token becomes invalid, and Pinterest says it does not always do so. A tool therefore learns the sign-in is dead the next time it calls the network, and that next call is often the scheduled post itself. That is how a lapsed sign-in becomes cause number one in why scheduled posts fail silently: nothing is wrong on the day you schedule, and the slot has passed by the time anyone looks.
How to be warned before a post fails
- Write down the connect date and the person. For each account, record when it was connected and by whom, then set a reminder from the table: a year out for LinkedIn, sooner for any network your tool does not renew. The channel register in our account connection checklist is the place to keep it.
- Reconnect on the day a password changes. A Facebook or Pinterest password change is a planned event. Make the reconnect part of it.
- Connect through someone who is staying. A Page connected by a contractor depends on that contractor keeping their role on it.
- Check dormant accounts before a campaign. A seasonal brand that posts twice a year can go past Google's six months or Meta's 90 days between campaigns. Open the tool and look at those channels a few days ahead, while there is still time to reconnect.
- Test what your tool does. Remove the tool's access on a test account, then watch how long it takes to say so, and whether it says so before or after a queued post fails.
- Read the reason, not only the status. A failed post caused by a dead sign-in needs a reconnect, not a retry. Our guide to post failure notifications covers how to tell expired access from rejected content.
What PostWharf shows when a sign-in ends
When a network reports that a channel's sign-in is no longer valid, PostWharf marks the channel itself, in four places.
- Channels. The channel reads as sign-in expired, with a Reconnect button that names the account. Where a network has several accounts, the row counts how many of them need reconnecting.
- The composer. The channel carries a reconnect label, and a line in the composer says the post would come back failed for that network, before you send it.
- The receipt. The failed row tells you to reconnect the network under Channels and publish again.
- Email. Every owner of the workspace gets one message per break. It names the network and the account, says how many posts are queued for it and when the next is due, and lists the posts that already missed. The emails can be switched off in Settings.
The same flag reaches the other routes: wharf channels in the command-line tool and list_channels on the MCP server both mark a channel that cannot publish until it is reconnected.
Use Reconnect, not Disconnect. Reconnecting signs the same channel in again and keeps what is queued for it. Disconnecting removes the saved credential and cancels queued posts that go only to that channel.
Common questions
Does changing my password disconnect my scheduling tool?
On Facebook and Pinterest, yes, according to their documentation, and an Instagram account connected through Facebook Login goes with the Facebook one. Google's documentation limits it to tokens with Gmail permissions. On Bluesky the tool holds an app password that is created and revoked separately from the main one.
What happens to scheduled posts when an account disconnects?
It depends on the tool: one may pause the queue for that account, and another may leave each post to fail when it comes due. In PostWharf a post that comes due while the channel is signed out fails with a receipt that says to reconnect, the alert email lists the posts that missed, and posts still queued go out once the channel is reconnected.
PostWharf is priced per workspace rather than per connected channel, and every plan carries unlimited channels. See per-brand pricing.