# Turn off one channel without turning off Connect

Setting a channel to `off` on What Connect May Do disables that channel and nothing else. Messages still arrive, records still update, relationships still build, and every other channel carries on exactly as before. What stops is Connect drafting or sending on that one channel.

- **Status:** Available
- **Audience:** both
- **In the app:** #/autonomy, #/calls
- **Last verified:** 2026-09-10
- **Canonical:** https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/how-to/turn-off-one-channel/

## What `off` does and does not touch

| Still happens | Stops |
|---|---|
| Inbound messages or calls arrive and are recorded | Connect drafting a reply on that channel |
| Contacts, companies and identities resolve as usual | Anything being sent on that channel |
| The timeline and Customer 360 stay complete | Approvals queueing for it — there is nothing to approve |
| Follow-ups on other channels drain normally | Follow-ups on the disabled channel being carried |
| Task follow-ups still appear for a person | Nothing — tasks were never sent by any drain |
| Memory, Knowledge and the Decision Log | Nothing |

The important half of that table is the left one. Turning a channel off does not make you blind on it. A customer who writes while email is off still appears in the conversation, still attaches to the right person and still shows up in that relationship's history — you simply answer them yourself.

## Four switches that are not the same thing

**`off`** — The channel is disabled. Nothing is drafted, so nothing is queued and nothing is sent.
**`draft_only`** — Replies are prepared and never sent, and nobody is asked. Use this when you want to see what Connect would say.
**`ask_before_send`** — Every outbound waits for a human yes. The work still happens; the send waits.
**The runtime switch** — Stops the whole loop across every channel. Mail still arrives and records still update; nothing is drafted anywhere.

> **Note** If your reason is 'I want to review everything for a fortnight', the answer is `ask_before_send` rather than `off`. Off produces no drafts to review, and you will come back to a channel with nothing prepared on it.

## Turning one off

1. Open What Connect May Do and find the channel: email, WhatsApp, SMS or voice.
   - Result: These are the four autonomy channels. Anything narrower — one mailbox, one number, one contact — is a scope beneath them.
2. Decide whether you want the whole channel or one endpoint.
   - Result: Endpoint scope is one mailbox or one phone number, and it beats the channel rule. Turning off one line is usually what people actually want when they say they want the phone off.
3. Set the mode to `off` at the scope you chose.
   - Result: Drafting on that scope stops immediately. Anything already queued for approval stays queued — it was created under the old rule and is still a decision somebody owes.
4. Deal with follow-ups already dated on that channel.
   - Result: They will not be carried while it is off. Phone follow-ups retry and then close as missed after a day; move the ones that matter to a channel that works, or to the `task` channel for a person.

> **Careful** For a phone line, taking the line itself out of service is a different and stronger action than setting voice autonomy to `off`, because it changes what a caller experiences. Decide which you mean before you do either.

## Confirming and reversing it

- Send yourself a message on that channel: it should arrive and appear in the conversation, with no draft written.
- Check Needs You: nothing new should queue for that channel, while existing items remain.
- Check the Decision Log: the refusal to act on that channel is recorded, so the reason is legible later.
- Reversing is the same screen and takes effect on the next piece of work — Connect does not go back and draft replies for the period it was off.

That last point is worth planning for. A fortnight of email with the channel off leaves a fortnight of unanswered threads, all correctly recorded and none of them drafted. Coming back means working through them, or raising the mode and accepting that older threads are answered late.

## Questions

### Does turning a channel off stop customers reaching me on it?

No. Inbound is unaffected — messages and calls arrive and are recorded. What stops is Connect responding on that channel. If you want the line itself to stop answering, that is a phone line action rather than an autonomy setting.

### Can I turn off one mailbox rather than all email?

Yes. Each mailbox has its own autonomy, and endpoint scope beats the channel rule, so one mailbox can sit at `off` while the rest of email runs normally.

### Does SMS behave differently?

Inbound SMS, deduplication, STOP and suppression all work regardless. Outbound is provider-dependent and the carrier on the live account carries no SMS at all, so on that account the outbound half is already not available — the readiness state on the Phone screen says so rather than presenting a thread that cannot send.

## Related

- [Setting autonomy per channel](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/autonomy/per-channel/)
- [The four autonomy modes](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/autonomy/modes/)
- [Turning Connect on and off](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/autonomy/connect-on-off/)
- [Stop Connect immediately](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/how-to/stop-connect-immediately/)
- [Switching the line off](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/phone/line-off/)
- [Autonomy on one mailbox](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/email/mailbox-autonomy/)
- [Sending SMS: what is available today](https://connectbyjbrh.com/docs/sms/sms-outbound-status/)

## What this page is based on

- Connect source pack: overview (docs-source/sources/GENERAL.md §5 — autonomy channels, modes and scopes)
- Connect source pack: channels (docs-source/sources/CHANNELS.md §3 — SMS and readiness)
- Connect capability registry (docs-source/facts.py — autonomy_modes, runtime_on_off, sms_outbound)