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docs: document what to do when an Actor is under maintenance - #3029
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The QA daemon flags an Actor when most of three days' test runs fail on one build, not after three consecutive failing days. Also fixes the testing links in actor-status and the stale contact-support advice in the Academy.
Ports the Help Center article "Troubleshooting an Actor marked Under maintenance", grounded against the test runner and notification templates.
Ports the Help Center article "What to do when your Actor comes under maintenance" to the Store page, where Actor users look.
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TC-MO
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October 12, 2026 08:42
szaganek
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Oct 13, 2026
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| ## Find out why the test failed | ||
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| When Apify labels your Actor `under maintenance`, you get a notification in Apify Console and by email. What it says depends on whether the test could start the Actor. |
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What it says? Is this second sentence even necessary?
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| ### The test couldn't start the Actor | ||
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| This usually means a problem with the input schema. The test builds its input from the schema's `prefill` values. Every required field needs a `prefill` or `default` value, and every value must pass the schema's validation. For example, a `prefill` of `3` fails for a field with `"maximum": 2`. |
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This is what? You can't expect people to read the heading and the text as a whole, they are two seprate elements. We need to repeat the info here.
| 1. Go to **Source** > **Input**. | ||
| 1. Select **Restore example input**. The form loads the values from the input schema and shows an error next to any value that fails validation. | ||
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| Fix the input schema, then rebuild the Actor. |
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I'm kind of missing the reason in this sentence 🤔
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| If your Actor can't pass the test for another reason, such as needing more than 5 minutes to finish, request to skip the tests: | ||
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| 1. In the under-maintenance notification, open the form link. It opens the **Request to skip Actor checks** dialog in your Actor's **Settings** tab. |
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Do we have to state what it opens? Maybe just in step 2, say something like "In the Request to skip Actor checks dialog, explain why..."
| 1. Explain why your Actor should skip the tests. | ||
| 1. Select **Send request**. | ||
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| Apify approves requests only in exceptional cases. You can also [contact support](https://apify.com/contact). |
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You can ~ also ~ contact support for what? If there's a form, do we want to encourage people to skip the process?
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| ## Actors under maintenance | ||
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| An Actor gets the **Under maintenance** label when it fails Apify's [automated tests](/actors/publishing/test), or when its developer sets it. Its page then shows the **This Actor is under maintenance** banner, sometimes with a message from the developer. Its runs can fail or return incomplete results. |
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Suggested change
| An Actor gets the **Under maintenance** label when it fails Apify's [automated tests](/actors/publishing/test), or when its developer sets it. Its page then shows the **This Actor is under maintenance** banner, sometimes with a message from the developer. Its runs can fail or return incomplete results. | |
| An Actor gets the **Under maintenance** label when it fails Apify's [automated tests](/actors/publishing/test), or when its developer sets it. Its page then shows the **This Actor is under maintenance** banner, sometimes with a message from the developer. Running such Actor can fail or return incomplete results. |
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| If an Actor you use is under maintenance: | ||
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| - Run it with a small input, such as a few pages, and check the results. |
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If we're trying to avoid talking about scrapers by default, should we talk about pages here? Maybe the first part of the sentence is enough?
Co-authored-by: Edyta <142720610+szaganek@users.noreply.github.com>
Grounded in the test runner: the test input comes from prefill only, and secrets and un-prefilled tokens are two separate exclusions. The skip-tests dialog opens only from the notification link, so the Settings hint goes.
The status, Store, and Academy pages each restated the deprecation schedule with a different number. Now they link to the one home.
The anchor for the skip section changed, so the Academy link follows it.
# Conflicts: # sources/platform/actors/running/store/index.md
szaganek
approved these changes
Oct 22, 2026
Co-authored-by: Edyta <142720610+szaganek@users.noreply.github.com>
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Ports the two Help Center articles on Actors marked "Under maintenance". The developer steps go into Actor testing, and a new section on the Store page covers what to do when an Actor you use gets flagged.
Also corrects the flagging threshold, keeps the deprecation schedule on the testing page only (the status, Store, and Academy pages now link to it), and fixes two links to the wrong testing page.