On this page: Learn how to debug and resolve common issues with inbound actions — such as in-app, web, and code-based experiences — in a journey before reaching out to support.
Inbound actions, such as In-app, web, and code-based experiences, are critical components of Journey Optimizer as they enable personalized engagement with users during their journey. However, unexpected behavior, such as missing inbound content, or continued delivery after a profile exits the journey, can occur.
This guide provides a step-by-step process to debug issues related to inbound actions in a journey, in order to help you identify and resolve them independently before reaching out to support.
Prerequisites prerequisites
Before you can start troubleshooting, ensure the following:
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Set up an Assurance session. Learn how in the Adobe Experience Platform Assurance documentation.
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Navigate to the journey containing the inbound action to retrieve the journey name and version ID.
note NOTE The journey version ID can be found in the URL after ‘journey/’ (for example: 86232fb1-2932-4036-8198-55dfec606fd7). 
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Click the inbound action to view its details. Retrieve the inbound action label and ID.
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Get the profile namespace and ID to identify the profile encountering issues. Based on your configuration, the namespace can be ECID, email, or customer ID for example. Learn how to look up a profile in the Experience Platform documentation.
Scenario 1: The user hasn’t received the inbound content scenario-1
In this scenario, a profile has entered the inbound action in the journey, but even after 30 minutes, the corresponding inbound content is not showing up in the device/client at the setup trigger step.
Pre-checks pre-checks
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Journey Inbound dataset is enabled for profile ingestion
The inbound action uses the Journey Inbound dataset for the profile updates during execution. Ensure that the dataset is enabled for Profiles in the current sandbox. Learn more on datasets
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‘joai’ identity defined in platform identities
The inbound action uses the joai namespace in the profile
segmentMembershipfor activating the profile for the inbound step. Ensure it has been defined in Platform Identities for the sandbox. Learn more on Experience Platform Identity Service
Debugging Steps debugging-steps
The chart below shows the sequence of debugging steps you can follow:
Step 1: check if the device/client is receiving the content from the edge network step-1
Start by checking if the device/client is getting the expected content.
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Go to the Assurance session and select the In-App Messaging section from the left panel.
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In the Messages on Device tab, click the Messages drop-down list.
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Look for a message with the journey name followed by ‘- In-app message’. If present, it means the In-app message is present on the device/client and the issue might be related to the In-app trigger.
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If the message is not found, the In-app message was not received by the device/client.
Step 2: check if the edge network is returning the content step-2
This step is to make sure the Edge Network is returning the expected inbound content to be rendered on the device/client.
When a profile enters an inbound action in a journey, it is automatically qualified into a special audience segment (in the joai namespace) corresponding to the inbound journey action.
When a client makes a request to the Edge Network for a given profile and surface, the profile qualifies to receive content for the inbound journey actions targeting that surface - only if the profile is currently a member of the corresponding joai segment.
To debug the Edge Network behavior, follow the steps below.
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Open the Edge Delivery view in the Assurance session. This view provides information about the execution of the inbound action on the Edge Network server. Learn more in the Experience Platform documentation.
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Verify if the Edge activity corresponding to the inbound action is listed in the Qualified Activities or Unqualified Activities sections.
- If in the Qualified Activities section, the profile qualified for the inbound journey action, and the content should be returned.
- If in the Unqualified Activities section, the profile did not qualify for the inbound journey action. See the exclusion reasons for more details.
- If in neither section, either there was a problem with publishing the inbound journey action to the Edge Network, or the requested surface URI did not match the channel configuration settings for the inbound action.
note NOTE To find your Edge activity in the Assurance session, look for the activity where the audienceNamespace is joai and the audienceSegmentId is <JourneyVersionID>_<JourneyActionID> (for example: 86232fb1-2932-4036-8198-55dfec606fd7_708f718d-8503-4427-ad8d-8e28979b554c). 
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If your activity is in the Unqualified Activities section and the exclusion reason is ‘Segment is not active’, it means the Edge Network delivery server does not think the profile is part of the relevant joai audience segment.
You can double check whether the joai segment is present in the Edge Network delivery server’s view of the profile by opening the segmentsMap element of the Profile section and looking for the presence of the joai segment ID.
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If the Edge Network delivery server does not view the profile as being in the relevant joai segment, go to the next step.
Step 3: check if the ‘joai’ audience membership has propagated to the edge network step-3
This step is to verify that the Edge profile was correctly updated when the profile entered the inbound journey action and the profile was qualified into the corresponding joai segment.
When a profile is qualified into a joai segment, the profile is first updated on the Hub and then the segment membership is projected to the Edge Profile for use by the Edge Network delivery server.
To check for the presence of the joai segment in the Edge profile’s segmentMembership attribute, follow the steps below.
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Navigate to the Customer > Profiles menu in the Journey Optimizer left navigation pane and browse to the profile using namespace and ID. Learn more on Real-time Customer Profiles
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Select the Attributes tab and choose the Edge view.
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Click View JSON to open the JSON view for the profile.
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Go to the
segmentMembershipattribute and check if the segment ID <JourneyVersionID>_<JourneyActionID> is present in the joai namespace and if in realized status.
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If present, the joai segment corresponding to the inbound journey action was correctly propagated to the Edge profile.
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If not displayed in the Edge Network delivery server’s view of the profile, there might be a problem with how the delivery server is loading the Edge profile.
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If the joai segment ID is not present or is in exited state, it means it was not (yet) propagated to Edge.
Wait 15 to 30 minutes for the
segmentMembershipvalues to be propagated from the Hub to the Edge. If still not present, go to the next step.
Step 4: check if the ‘joai’ audience membership is present in the profile on the hub step-4
This step is to verify that the Hub profile was correctly updated when the profile entered the inbound journey action and the profile was qualified into the corresponding joai segment.
To check for the presence of the joai segment in the Hub profile’s segmentMembership attribute, follow the steps below.
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Navigate to the Customer > Profiles menu in the Journey Optimizer left navigation pane and browse to the profile using namespace and ID. Learn more on Real-time Customer Profiles
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Select the Attributes tab and choose the Hub view.
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Click View JSON to open the JSON view for the profile.
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Go to the segmentMembership attribute and check if the segment ID <JourneyVersionID>_<JourneyActionID> is present in the joai namespace and if in realized status.
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If present, the joai segment corresponding to the inbound journey action was correctly ingested in the Hub profile.
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If not found in the Edge profile after at least 30 minutes, there might be a problem with the Edge projection system.
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If the joai segment ID is not present or is in exited state, it means the profile was not (yet) correctly qualified into the special joai audience segment upon entry into the corresponding inbound journey action.
Wait 15 to 30 minutes for the
segmentMembershipvalues to be ingested into the profile on the Hub. If still not present, go to the next step.
Step 5: If the client/device is still not getting the expected content step-5
If you’ve gone through all the steps above and aren’t seeing the expected behavior after waiting 30 to 60 minutes for the segment membership to propagate to the Edge Network, contact Adobe Customer Care or your Adobe representative.
Include as much detail as you can from the debugging steps, such as:
- the step where you see the unexpected behavior;
- the journey version ID;
- the journey action ID;
- the full Assurance trace;
- the JSON view of Edge profile;
- the JSON view of Hub profile;
- etc.
Scenario 2: The user is still receiving the inbound content scenario-2
This scenario is the reverse of Scenario 1: the profile has exited the journey, but the user is still receving the inbound content.
However, when a profile exits a journey, it should no longer qualify for the joai audience segments corresponding to the inbound actions in the journey.
Go through the same debugging steps as for Scenario 1 to check whether the Hub profile, Edge profile and Edge Network delivery server correctly reflect the segment membership status of the relevant joai segment, and whether the client is no longer receiving the inbound content.
This section contains structured knowledge intended to support interpretation, retrieval, and question answering related to this topic.
For complete understanding, this information should be combined with the documentation on this page. Neither source is intended to stand alone; the page describes the feature, while this section provides additional context that helps disambiguate terminology, intent, applicability, and constraints.
- TL;DR: This page provides a step-by-step self-service debugging guide for two inbound action scenarios in Adobe Journey Optimizer journeys: a profile entering an inbound step but not receiving the content, and a profile continuing to receive content after exiting the journey.
Intents:
- Set up an Assurance session as a prerequisite before debugging inbound action issues
- Verify whether the device or client is receiving inbound content from the Edge Network using Assurance
- Check Edge Network qualified and unqualified activities to determine if a profile is eligible for an inbound journey action
- Confirm that the joai audience segment membership has propagated from the Hub profile to the Edge profile
- Diagnose delays in joai segment ingestion on the Hub profile after a profile enters an inbound action
- Escalate to Adobe Customer Care with the correct diagnostic information when self-service steps do not resolve the issue
Glossary:
- Inbound actions: Journey activities that deliver personalized content to a user’s device or browser, including In-app, web, and code-based experience channels (product-specific)
- joai namespace: A special identity namespace used in profile
segmentMembershipto activate a profile for an inbound journey action step (product-specific) - joai segment: An automatically created audience segment in the joai namespace corresponding to a specific inbound journey action; the profile must be in a realized state in this segment to receive the content (product-specific)
- Journey Inbound dataset: The AEP dataset used to store profile updates made when a profile enters an inbound journey action (product-specific)
- Hub profile: The central profile store in Adobe Experience Platform used as the source of truth for profile attributes and segment membership
- Edge profile: The projected copy of the Hub profile used by the Edge Network delivery server to evaluate content eligibility in real time
- Assurance: An Adobe Experience Platform tool for real-time debugging of client-side SDK behavior and Edge Network responses
Guardrails:
- The Journey Inbound dataset must be enabled for profile ingestion in the current sandbox before inbound actions work correctly
- The joai namespace must be defined in Platform Identities for the sandbox
- Propagation of joai segment membership from Hub to Edge can take up to 15–30 minutes
- Ingestion of joai segment membership into the Hub profile can take up to 15–30 minutes after the profile enters the inbound action
- If content is still missing after 30–60 minutes, escalate to Adobe Customer Care with journey version ID, action ID, Assurance trace, and Edge and Hub profile JSON views
Terminology:
- Canonical name: joai namespace — Acronym: joai — variants: joai identity, joai segment namespace
- Canonical name: Inbound actions — Acronym: none — variants: inbound channels, inbound content
- Synonyms: “Hub profile” = “central profile” (AEP); “Edge profile” = “projected profile” (used by Edge Network)
- Do not confuse: “Qualified Activities” ≠ “Unqualified Activities” in Edge Delivery view — qualified means the profile received content; unqualified means it did not, with an exclusion reason shown
FAQ:
- Q: What are the two main inbound action failure scenarios covered by this guide? — Scenario 1: a profile entered the inbound step but the user never sees the content. Scenario 2: a profile exited the journey but the user still receives the inbound content.
- Q: What tool do I use to debug inbound action delivery? — Adobe Experience Platform Assurance. Set up an Assurance session first, then use the In-App Messaging and Edge Delivery views to inspect content delivery and Edge Network responses.
- Q: What is the joai segment and why does it matter? — When a profile enters an inbound action, it is automatically qualified into a joai audience segment scoped to that specific action. The Edge Network only delivers the inbound content if the profile is in a realized state in that joai segment.
- Q: How long does it take for joai segment membership to appear on the Edge profile? — Up to 15–30 minutes for propagation from Hub to Edge after the Hub profile is updated.
- Q: What should I do if the joai segment ID is in exited state on the Edge profile? — The profile has left the joai segment, meaning it exited the inbound journey action. If this is unexpected, trace back through Hub profile ingestion and check if the profile correctly entered the inbound action step.
- Q: What information should I provide when escalating to Adobe Customer Care? — The journey version ID, journey action ID, the step where unexpected behavior occurs, the full Assurance trace, and the JSON views of both the Edge and Hub profiles.