How to Troubleshoot Errors in Multi-step Phantoms

This guide provides a step-by-step process for diagnosing and resolving common issues you may encounter when running multi-step Phantoms (automations made up of several tasks or agents).

Reviewing logs for insights

The first step in troubleshooting any issue is to review the logs. Multi-step Phantoms consist of several linked actions or “worker agents,” so it's important to check both the main Phantom log and the individual agent logs.

How to access logs

1. Go to your PhantomBuster Dashboard, and click on the multi-step Phantom you want to troubleshoot.
2. In the URL, replace the word “dashboard” with “console” and press Enter. This will take you to the console page.
3. Click on the Activity tab.
4. Hover over the specific launch you're interested in and click View log for detailed information:

5. In the log, look for the Output box to check for any error messages or issues.

What to look for in a log

• Error messages: Look for any error codes or descriptions that indicate what went wrong.
• Incomplete actions: Check if the multi-step Phantom stopped before fully completing the task. For example, this might happen if your PhantomBuster account runs out of execution time during the process.
• Timing and delays: Review the timing of launches to identify any unexpected delays in the execution of worker agents.

Reviewing individual worker agent logs

If a specific step isn’t working, reviewing individual worker agent logs can help isolate the issue.

Here’s how to do it:

1. On the multi-step Phantom's console page, go to the Activity tab.
2. On the right side, you will see a list of worker agents.
3. Click on any worker agent to open its console page.
4. Hover over the specific launch and click View log to see the detailed information.
   

5. Check the Output box for any errors or issues related to that specific agent.

For example, if the invitation step fails, click on the LinkedIn Auto Connect worker agent to investigate any issues with sending invitations.

Common issues and how to fix them

Reprocessing profiles that returned errors

Once a profile has been processed, it won’t be reprocessed automatically. If you want to retry errored profiles:

1. Download the CSV results file from the multi-step Phantom's console.
2. Copy the errored profiles into a Google Sheet, and ensure sharing access is set to Anyone with the link.
3. Create a new multi-step Phantom and use the URL of the Google Sheet as the input file to reprocess the errored profiles.

Multi-step Phantom launched, but no immediate activity

There may be a short delay between launch and visible activity, especially for sequential actions.

When launched, multi-step Phantoms execute tasks one after another (e.g., gathering profiles → sending invites). This design ensures safe and orderly execution.

Wait for the multi-step Phantom to complete the initial steps, such as gathering profiles. You'll see messages or invites go out once those steps finish.

Changing input after launch

Once a multi-step Phantom has been launched and is active, changing the input can cause disruptions.

If you need to update the input:

1. For a single URL as input: Start a new multi-step Phantom to process the new URL
2. For a spreadsheet URL as input: You can add new entries to the last row of the spreadsheet, provided they are the same type of input. The multi-step Phantom will automatically pick them up (e.g., if the input is LinkedIn search URLs, the new entries must also be LinkedIn search URLs).