---
title: "Troubleshooting client access issues"
description: "You sent the request, the client swears they clicked everything, and yet — nothing."
canonical_url: https://chatfuel.com/docs/for-agencies/troubleshooting-client-access-issues
markdown_url: https://chatfuel.com/docs/for-agencies/troubleshooting-client-access-issues.md
last_updated: 2026-07-06
lang: en
site: https://chatfuel.com/docs
llms_txt: https://chatfuel.com/llms.txt
---

# Troubleshooting client access issues

You sent the request, the client swears they clicked everything, and yet — nothing.

You sent the request, the client swears they clicked everything, and yet — nothing. Access problems all look the same from the outside ("it doesn't work") but have a handful of very different causes underneath. This page is the map: find your symptom, apply the fix. All of these happen **before** any channel touches Chatfuel — if access is fine but the WhatsApp or Instagram connection itself fails, that's a different family of errors covered in [Common Meta access errors](https://chatfuel.com/docs/for-agencies/common-meta-access-errors).

## "The client can't find Business Settings or the Partners menu" [#the-client-cant-find-business-settings-or-the-partners-menu]

The client is looking at their personal Facebook, or at the Page's inbox in Meta Business Suite — not at portfolio settings. Two possibilities:

* **They have a portfolio but are lost in the interface.** Send them the direct link: `business.facebook.com/settings` → **Partners** in the left menu. Meta's navigation changes often enough that "click Settings, then..." descriptions rot; the direct URL doesn't.
* **They don't actually have a Business Portfolio.** A Facebook Page alone, run from a personal profile, is not a portfolio. If `business.facebook.com` offers them to *create* a business portfolio, that's your answer — switch to the [from-scratch track](https://chatfuel.com/docs/for-agencies/when-the-client-has-no-business-manager). It's a 5-minute create, not a crisis.

## "The person I'm talking to isn't the admin" [#the-person-im-talking-to-isnt-the-admin]

Only someone with **Full control** of the portfolio can add a partner. Your day-to-day contact — the marketing manager, the owner's nephew — often isn't that person. Ask directly: *"Who sees the Partners menu at business.facebook.com/settings? Whose name has Full control under People?"*

The painful variant: the only Full-control admin is gone — an ex-employee, a previous agency, a co-founder who left. Options, in order:

1. **Someone reachable still has Full control** — have them add the owner (or you) properly before anything else changes.
2. **The old admin is reachable but external** (previous agency): ask the client to request they add the owner with Full control. Most part on decent terms; a short polite email solves it.
3. **Nobody has access** — the client goes through Meta's business support to prove ownership with business documents. Slow (days to weeks), so start it immediately and build anything time-critical in parallel.

**Important:** whatever the cleanup plan, the order is fixed: new Full-control admin in and confirmed working first, old one removed second. Removing first is how businesses lose their own WhatsApp Business Account.

## "I sent the partner request and nothing arrived" [#i-sent-the-partner-request-and-nothing-arrived]

The request from your side ([Route B](https://chatfuel.com/docs/for-agencies/meta-partner-access)) travels to the email tied to the client's **portfolio**, not necessarily the email you have for them. Three usual causes:

* **Wrong email.** The portfolio was created years ago on an address nobody checks. Ask the client to look at **Business Settings → Business Info** for the actual email — or check **Partners** directly, where the pending request shows regardless of email.
* **It's sitting in Requests.** In the client's Business Settings, pending partner requests appear under **Requests** / the Partners tab. Notifications are unreliable; the tab is not.
* **Wrong Business Portfolio ID.** If the client gave you their ID and the request went nowhere visible, verify it: 16 digits, from **their** Business Info page — not an ad account ID (those are shorter and live elsewhere).

## "Access granted, but I don't see the assets" [#access-granted-but-i-dont-see-the-assets]

The client added your agency as a partner — and stopped there. Adding a partner and **assigning assets to that partner** are two separate steps, and the second one is the one that gets skipped. Ask them to open **Partners → \[your agency] → Assets** and check what's actually shared. If the list is empty or partial, that's the whole bug.

The subtler version: **the asset isn't in the client's portfolio to begin with.**

* The Facebook Page is owned by the owner's personal profile → it must first be added to the portfolio (**Business Settings → Accounts → Pages → Add**), only then can it be shared with a partner.
* The ad account or pixel lives in a *different* portfolio — a previous agency's, a co-founder's, an old test setup. An asset can't be shared from a portfolio the client doesn't control; it has to be reclaimed or recreated. Ad accounts in a previous agency's portfolio usually can't be transferred out — budget history stays, and the clean path is a new ad account in the client's own portfolio.

## "I have access but can't do anything with it" [#i-have-access-but-cant-do-anything-with-it]

You see the asset, but campaigns won't publish or settings are read-only. The client granted a lower permission level than the task needs — usually view-only analytics access instead of ads management. Have them open **Partners → \[your agency]**, click the asset, and raise the permission level. The permissions table in the partner access guide shows exactly what to request per asset — send it along, and when the fix needs the client to click again, the follow-up message in [Scripts for asking clients for access](https://chatfuel.com/docs/for-agencies/scripts-for-asking-clients-for-access) keeps it friendly.

Separate case with the same symptoms: **your own teammate** can't work with an asset the client definitely shared. Partner access lands on your *agency's portfolio* — you still need to assign your people to the client's assets on your side (**your Business Settings → the asset → People**). The client did nothing wrong; the missing step is yours.

## "Meta is blocking the grant itself" [#meta-is-blocking-the-grant-itself]

Sometimes the access flow errors out on Meta's side:

* **Two-factor authentication required.** Portfolios with mandatory 2FA won't let people without it touch settings. Both the client's admin and your team need 2FA enabled on their Facebook accounts — it's a five-minute fix and you should have it anyway.
* **The client's account is restricted.** If the granting account has an advertising restriction or the portfolio itself is flagged, partner operations can silently fail. The client checks **Account status** / Business support home for red banners — restrictions have their own appeal flows and nothing moves until they clear.
* **A brand-new portfolio acting weird.** Portfolios created yesterday sometimes can't add partners for a short period. Give it 24–48 hours of normal activity, then retry.

## Still stuck? [#still-stuck]

If access is granted, assets assigned, permissions right — and the *channel connection* is what's failing (QR code errors, "number not associated with the selected business", Instagram not appearing) — you've graduated from this page. That family lives in Common Meta access errors, which is about exactly that stage.