What the builder does when you insert one
Open Automation > Workflows, choose the workflow and go to the Builder. Insert an If/Else between the trigger and the first action, or between any two actions. Every step that was below that point now sits under the first branch, and the None branch gets nothing but END.
That is behavior we've recorded in our own builds, not something HighLevel documents, and it trips people up because the obvious way to write the new condition is the wrong way round.
Say you want to send some contacts down a new path. The natural first branch is "contact meets the new condition, so do the new thing". But that branch now holds all of your existing steps. The contacts who meet the new condition get the old flow, and everyone else stops at END.
The first branch keeps the old steps. Make it the old path, and put the new behavior under None.
Write the first branch as the pass-through
Turn the condition around. The first branch should describe the contacts who carry on as before, so the existing steps keep running for them. If you're adding a way to hold some contacts back, for example, the first branch is "doesn't have the hold tag", and the hold steps go under None.
Then build the new actions under None, where nothing else lives yet. The old flow stays exactly where it was, one level down.
Make the change in this order
A checkpoint first, the edit second, publishing last.
- Use Save Version to capture a checkpoint before touching the branches. Routine auto-saves don't create version-history entries, so this is the save you can return to.
- Insert the If/Else where the decision belongs.
- Open the first branch and check which steps are now under it.
- Set the first branch's condition so it matches the contacts on the old path.
- Build the new actions under None.
- Review the draft before you publish. To try the change away from the live flow, Create new workflow from version gives you a separate copy.
Rather have it set up for you?
We map your existing workflows, add new branches without moving what already works and test each path, beginning with a 30-minute 1:1 with Rob.
Version History, and what Restore really does
Version History keeps up to ten versions or thirty days, whichever comes first. Older checkpoints drop off, so save one right before a branch change rather than relying on one from weeks ago.
Restore doesn't roll the live workflow back. It creates a draft from the earlier version, and nothing changes for contacts until that draft is published. Restore also needs the workflow in Draft status with no contacts currently enrolled.
One detail for flows with waits: a contact who is already waiting keeps their current timing, even if you edit that Wait action.
Two side effects worth knowing
Be careful with tags while you're inside a branch. The tag picker's Add New tag creates the tag at once, even if the action is never saved. Cancelling the action leaves the new tag in the account, so delete it yourself if you didn't mean to keep it.
And look at the canvas after every insert. HighLevel changes the builder from time to time, so confirm where your steps landed rather than trusting this guide, or your memory of the last time.