Publishing

"Automatic" means Creaon itself sends the post to the platform when it's due, with no further action from you. "Manual" means Creaon can't do that for this platform (or this slot is missing something automatic publishing needs) — the slot stays on your Calendar as a reminder, and you publish it yourself on the platform, then tell Creaon it's done.

Which one applies is decided automatically when you schedule a post, based on the platform you chose — you don't have to choose a publishing mode yourself.

Due posts are published by a scheduled background check. You don't have to keep a tab open or stay signed in — but this check runs on a daily schedule rather than continuously, so a post's real publish time can trail its scheduled time by up to that interval.

If you want a due post sent right away instead of waiting, the Calendar's "Publish due now" button runs the same check immediately for your own account.

• YouTube — Automatic, video required. A video must be attached to the slot before it's due, or it falls back to manual with a clear reason. A newly uploaded video can stay processing briefly before YouTube confirms it's live; Creaon checks back rather than marking it published early. Automatically published videos always upload as Private — publishing directly from Content Studio is the way to choose Public or Unlisted.
• Instagram — Automatic, media required. One JPEG image (a feed post) or one MP4/MOV video (a Reel) must be attached ahead of time, or it falls back to manual.
• TikTok — Automatic, video required (MP4/MOV). A video must be attached ahead of time, or it falls back to manual. Automatically published videos use TikTok's most private visibility option available on the account — Creaon never posts publicly on your behalf without you choosing to.
• X — Automatic. Works as a text-only post, or with one attached JPEG image or MP4/MOV video — the only platform that doesn't require media.
• Twitch — Automatic, but publishes a channel/stream update (title, category, and tags), not a video post — Twitch's API has no way to upload a pre-recorded video as a post. There's no media step for Twitch.
• Spotify — Not publishable yet. Every Spotify-provider slot is manual: Creaon has no publishing path to Spotify at all today, only analytics.

Creaon only marks a post Published once the platform has genuinely confirmed it — never optimistically. For most platforms that happens in one step; for a freshly uploaded YouTube video (and an X video still transcoding), there's a brief in-between state where the platform has accepted the upload but hasn't confirmed it's live yet. Creaon shows this as still in progress and checks back rather than guessing.

If a platform rejects a post — an expired connection, content that violates a limit, an invalid file — the slot is marked Failed with a plain-language reason, and offers Retry (or "Reconnect account" specifically when that's the cause). Retrying re-runs the publish immediately; it doesn't wait for the next scheduled check.

A slot Creaon can't handle automatically (no media attached where one's required, or a platform with no automatic path) is never marked Failed — it's left Scheduled with a note explaining why, so it reads as "needs you," not "broken."

For a platform (or a specific slot) Creaon can't publish automatically:

1. Publish the post yourself, directly on the platform.
2. Come back to the slot on the Calendar and choose "Mark as published."
3. Optionally paste the live post's URL — this is what lets Analytics attribute performance to that post.