Troubleshooting Share Links

What each invite link and email invite message means — expired, turned off, removed, no room for more viewers, already invited, verify your email — plus missing invite emails, missing open notifications, the wrong email language, links that open your browser instead of the app, and a missing Ask Wave tab.

Invite links (app.wave.co/i/…) fail with one short sentence that says exactly what went wrong. Here's each one, and what to do next.

The wording shifts a little between the phone app, the web, and the Wave desktop app. On the web you see a short heading with a sentence under it, for example This link has expired with "Ask the person who shared it to send a new one." The meaning is the same everywhere.

"This link is no longer active"

This is what a browser shows when you open an invite link that can't be used any more. It covers several of the reasons below: a link that was cut short, reset, cancelled, expired, or for a session that's full. The page doesn't say which, on purpose.

Ask the person who shared it to send a new link. If you already had access to the session, it's still in your Shared with me list; open it from there.

The link doesn't match any invite. Almost always it was cut short — copied out of a message that wrapped it, or pasted without the last few characters.

Ask the sender to send the link again, and open it directly rather than retyping it.

The owner used Reset link on that session, which retires every link they'd sent — including the links in email invites. Everyone who had already opened the old link still has access; the link itself is dead.

You'll also see this on an email invite the owner cancelled, or one they've since resent — only the newest invite email works.

Ask them for the new link, or open the most recent invite email.

Invite links last 30 days from the moment they're created, and email invites 30 days from when they were sent. This one is older than that.

Ask for a fresh link. If you claimed the session before the link expired, you don't need a new link at all — it's still in your Shared with me list.

"The owner removed your access to this session."

The owner took you off the People with access list for that session. An old link can't get you back in.

Only the owner can restore it, by sending you a new invite link.

"This session is no longer available."

The owner deleted the session, so there's nothing to open. If they deleted it by mistake they can restore it from Recently Deleted within 30 days, and your access comes back with it.

"You no longer have access to this session."

You're opening a session that's already in your list, but the grant behind it is gone — usually a removal or a delete that happened while you had the page open. Go back to Shared with me; the row disappears on its own.

"This session already has as many viewers as it can hold."

The session has as many people on it as Wave allows: 250. The owner needs to remove someone from People with access before anyone else can join.

You're signed out, or signed in only as a guest. Shared sessions are tied to a real account. Sign in or create one — it's free — and open the link again.

"Too many attempts. Try again in a little while."

Wave limits how many links one account can open or create per hour, and how many email invites it can send:

Limit	How many
Email invites per account	200 addresses an hour, 1,000 a day
Emails to any one address	10 a day, across all your sessions
Resend to a pending invite	Once an hour
Addresses per send	10

Wait an hour and try once more. If you hit a daily limit on email invites, you can still copy the invite link and send it yourself.

"That link timed out before you signed in. Open it again."

The desktop app holds an invite for an hour while you sign in. That hour ran out. Open the link again now that you're signed in.

Sending email invites

These appear on the owner's side, after you send invites from Invite by email under Who can see this. Wave sends to the rest of the addresses and tells you which ones it skipped.

"Verify the email on your Wave account to send invites."

Wave only sends invites on behalf of an account whose sign-in email is verified. If you sign in with Google, Apple, or Microsoft, it's verified automatically. If you signed up with an email and password, verify that address, then try again. Until then, you can still copy the invite link and send it yourself.

"That's your own address"

You can't invite yourself. The session is already yours.

"email already has access"

That person has already opened the session. They'll find it under Shared with me — nothing more to send.

"email was already invited in the last hour" / "Already sent in the last hour"

Wave sends at most one invite to the same address for a session every hour. That's the wording on iPhone and Android. On the web and in the Wave desktop app the message reads "email was already invited today" or "Already sent today", but the wait is still one hour. Check People with access: the invite is listed there as pending, so it was sent. Try Resend after an hour, or copy the invite link and send it yourself in the meantime.

"Not a valid address"

The address has a typo or is missing part of it. Remove the chip and type it again.

"Couldn't send to email. Try again."

That one email didn't go out, and the invite for it was withdrawn. Send to that address again in a moment.

"You can invite up to 10 people at a time"

Each send takes up to 10 addresses. Send the first 10, then add the rest.

"Couldn't cancel the invite. Try again."

Cancelling a pending invite didn't go through. Try again in a moment. If the address is no longer shown as pending, the person may have just opened it. Look for them under People with access.

The invite email never arrived

Look in spam, junk, or the Promotions tab. The email comes from "Owner name via Wave" at support@wave.co, with the subject Owner name shared "title" with you on Wave.

Owner: check People with access. If the address is listed there as a pending invite (Pending on iPhone & Android), Wave sent the email. Check the spelling of the address while you're there.

Owner: resend. Resend works once an hour per address. The new email replaces the old one — only the link in the newest email works.

Or skip email. Copy the invite link and send it by message, chat, or your own email. It gives the same access.

Replying to the invite email goes to the owner, not to Wave.

The invite email came in the wrong language

Wave picks the language for each invite email automatically:

If the person already uses Wave, it's in the language they use Wave in.
If they don't use Wave yet, it's in the language of the sender's Wave app.

So to change the language for someone new to Wave, the sender changes the language of their own app before sending.

I didn't get a notification when someone opened my session

Wave tells you once — by push if your phone is set up for Wave notifications, otherwise by one email from "Josh from Wave". It deliberately stays quiet in these cases:

Someone else already triggered a notice for that session in the last 24 hours. Wave sends at most one per session per day, so a link shared with a group produces one notice, not one per person.
You've already had 5 notices today across all your sessions.
They'd opened it before. Only the first time a person gets access counts; repeat views never notify.
You've unsubscribed from Wave emails and your phone isn't set up for Wave push notifications, so there's nowhere to send it.

Either way, open the session's share sheet: People with access always lists everyone who has access.

The link opened my browser instead of the Wave app

That's not a fault, and the browser page works — sign in there and read the session on app.wave.co. If you'd rather be in the app:

Tap Open in Wave on the page. That hands it to the app.
Make sure your app is Wave 4.0.0 or newer. Older builds have no invite handling at all, so links always land in the browser.

A link only jumps to the app when you tap it in another app — Messages, Mail, Slack, a calendar invite. Typed or pasted into the browser's address bar, it stays in the browser, and so does a link you tap on a page that's already on app.wave.co. Once you've chosen "Open in Safari" for one of these links, that phone tends to keep doing it.

I don't see "Who can see this" or "Invite by email"

The Who can see this section, with the invite link and Invite by email, is in every share sheet on:

iPhone & Android — Wave 4.0.0 or newer (Invite by email: 4.0.3 or newer)
Web — app.wave.co, nothing to update
Mac, Windows & Linux — Wave 2.2.3 or newer (Invite by email: 2.2.4 or newer)

In older versions the section is called Share with a Wave user. If you're below those versions, update the app. Older versions still have link sharing — copy the invite link and send it yourself. On a computer, Wave 2.2.2 and older has no sharing section and doesn't understand invite links; use app.wave.co in the meantime.

I don't see Ask Wave on a session shared with me

The Ask Wave tab (Ask in the phone and desktop apps) sits next to Summary, Transcript, and Action items on a shared session. If it isn't there:

Check your app version. It needs Wave 4.0.3 or newer on iPhone & Android, or Wave 2.2.4 or newer on Mac, Windows & Linux. On app.wave.co there's nothing to update. Until you've updated, open the same session on app.wave.co.
You've lost access. If the owner removed you or deleted the session, the tab goes with the rest of the session and your conversation about it is deleted. You'll see one of the messages above.

If the tab is there but Wave says the session is still processing, wait for the owner's recording to finish and ask again. If the owner shared only the summary, Wave answers from the summary and there are no moments to jump to. If Wave says you've asked a lot in a short time, you've hit the fair-use limit — 10 questions a minute, 200 a day — so wait a moment. See Ask Wave About a Session Shared with You.

The person I shared with sees nothing

Check the obvious ones first:

Open the session's share sheet and look at People with access. If they aren't listed, they never finished claiming the link — they may have closed the sign-in. If you emailed them and they're still listed as a pending invite, they haven't opened it yet (see The invite email never arrived).

Confirm they signed in to the account they expect. A claim belongs to whichever account was signed in when they opened the link.

If you used Reset link after sending it, the link you sent is dead. Send them the new one.

If you removed them earlier, send a brand-new link — that re-admits them.

On this page