How Discover Updates — When New Posts and Articles Arrive

Discover doesn’t check your sources live. It collects new content on a schedule: most sources once a day overnight, Reddit once a week. This guide explains when each kind of source updates, how much it collects, and why a source you just added takes a day to show anything.

You choose what Discover watches on your brand’s Discover tab. See Discover Sources. What it collects appears in Discover.

The update schedule at a glance

All times are UTC.

There’s no button to update a source on demand.

Social media posts

Discover checks every active Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook account you follow once a day, around 2:00 a.m. UTC.

What each daily update reads

Each day, Discover re-reads the account’s posts from at least the last 10 days. That picks up new posts and refreshes the likes, views and comments on recent ones. If the last update was longer ago than 10 days, it goes back to that update, up to 90 days.

How many posts per update

Each update reads up to this many of an account’s most recent posts:

Example: You add a TikTok account that posts 3 times a day. The first update collects its 20 most recent videos, which covers about the last week. Older videos from that account aren’t collected.

Engagement numbers

Likes, views, comment counts and similar numbers on a post are a snapshot from the last time Discover read that post. They aren’t live.

• Posts from the last 10 days are re-read every day, so their numbers stay fresh.
• Posts from the last 35 days are re-read once a month, on the 1st, around 3:00 a.m. UTC.
• Older posts keep the numbers from their last update.

On TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn, each re-read covers the account’s 20 most recent posts. For a very busy account, that may not reach back the full 10 or 35 days.

Profile details and followers

Discover updates each followed account’s profile once a day, around 2:00 a.m. UTC. That includes its follower count. The engagement rate shown on posts compares engagement with the number of followers, so it uses the latest daily follower count.

Websites and blogs

Discover checks your websites once a day, around 2:00 a.m. UTC.

• Sites with a feed (they show a badge like 1 feed): Discover reads the feed and adds any articles it hasn’t seen before. The first update adds whatever the feed currently lists, usually the site’s latest articles.
• Sites without a feed (they show Tracking new pages): Discover opens the page you entered and notes the links on it. The first update only records the links that are already there, so menus and older pages don’t show up as new. After that, only new links are added.

Articles found through a feed show in the Feed right away. Pages found by checking links show once Discover’s AI has recognised them as articles or blog posts. That usually happens within a day. Pages that aren’t articles, like About or Contact pages, are kept but don’t appear in the Feed.

Web watchlists

Discover runs each web watchlist query once a day, around 2:00 a.m. UTC.

• Each run keeps the top 10 results for the query.
• Only results Discover hasn’t seen before are added.
• A query is never run more than once every 20 hours.

Each query on your brand’s Discover tab shows Not yet synced until its first run, then Last checked with the date.

Example: Your query new bike lanes Portland finds 10 articles on its first night. The next night, 8 of the top 10 are the same articles, so only 2 new ones are added.

Reddit

Discover checks your subreddits and Reddit searches once a week, on Sundays, around 4:00 a.m. UTC.

• Each check collects a batch of the most relevant posts, not every post.
• The first check looks across all time. After that, each check looks at posts from the past month.
• Adult (NSFW) posts are left out.

A subreddit you add on a Monday can take almost a week to show its first posts.

Pillar and audience tags

After a post or article arrives, Orsa AI reads it and tags it with the themes and audiences it covers. You see these as badges on posts and under AI Detected Pillars and AI Detected Audiences in the post details. Content from your own channels and website is also matched to your brand’s content pillars and audiences. Content from other accounts is tagged without your brand’s pillar names, so those names never leave your brand.

Tagging runs every 15 minutes, but each item is processed in a queue. Tags can take up to a day to appear after the post or article shows up. Photo posts, blog articles and web watchlist results are tagged. Posts Orsa AI couldn’t read after two days, like many videos, are tagged from their caption.

Breakout posts and rule matches

Breakout posts are worked out each day, right after the social media update. A post that’s doing much better than its account’s usual shows up on the Signals tab the same morning.

Custom rule matches take a little longer. Orsa AI checks new content against your rules each day, and matches usually show up about a day after the content was collected.

To learn how breakout posts and rules work, see Signals.

Why a new source takes a day

Adding a source doesn’t fetch anything straight away. It’s picked up at the next scheduled update:

• Social accounts, websites and web watchlists: the next night, around 2:00 a.m. UTC.
• Subreddits and Reddit searches: the next Sunday, around 4:00 a.m. UTC.

Then:

• Pillar and audience tags can take up to another day.
• Breakout posts need enough history. An account needs at least 10 posts from the last 30 to 60 days before its breakout posts can show.

Example: You add a competitor’s Instagram account on Tuesday afternoon. Its posts from the last 90 days arrive early Wednesday morning (UTC). Pillar badges fill in during Wednesday. If the account posts often, its breakout posts can show on the Signals tab from Wednesday too.

Private and restricted accounts

Discover can only read public content.

• Private accounts return no posts.
• Restricted accounts may return few or no posts. For example, Instagram accounts with age limits or limited to some countries.
• Misspelled usernames return nothing. Discover doesn’t warn you about this on the Discover tab.

If an account stays empty after a couple of days, open its profile in your browser while logged out. If you can’t see its posts there, Discover can’t either.

Paused and removed sources

• A paused source isn’t checked. Its content leaves your Discover feed until you turn it back on. When you resume a social account, the next update reads back to its last update, up to 90 days.
• A removed source isn’t checked, and its content leaves your feed.

Tips for the best results

Check Discover in the morning. Most sources update around 2:00 a.m. UTC. Depending on where you are, that’s overnight or early in your day.

Add sources a day before you need them. Planning a competitor review on Thursday? Add the accounts by Wednesday. For Reddit, add them a week ahead.

Expect a short history for busy TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Each update reads only their 20 most recent posts. If you need an older post, open the account directly.

Treat engagement numbers on older posts as a snapshot. After about a month, a post’s likes and views stop updating. Use them to compare posts, not as today’s exact count.

Fill in your pillars and audiences first. Tags are matched to your brand’s own pillars and audiences. With none set up, posts arrive without tags. See Content Pillars.

Common questions

I added a source today. Why is it empty? Sources are picked up at the next scheduled update. Social accounts, websites and web watchlists update around 2:00 a.m. UTC. Reddit updates on Sundays.

Can I make Discover update right now? No. There’s no manual refresh. New content arrives at the next scheduled update.

Why do I only see a few weeks of posts from a TikTok account? Each update reads up to 20 of a TikTok, Facebook or LinkedIn account’s most recent posts. For accounts that post a lot, that only covers a few days or weeks.

Why hasn’t the like count on a post changed? Numbers on posts older than 10 days update only once a month, on the 1st. Posts older than about 35 days keep the numbers from their last update.

A post has no pillar badge yet. Tagging can take up to a day after the post arrives. Check again tomorrow.

My web watchlist adds nothing new. Each day only the top 10 results are kept, and only new ones are added. If the top results don’t change, nothing new appears. Try a more specific query.

My website isn’t showing any articles in the Feed. The site may have no feed, so Discover is reading the links on the page you entered, and pages that aren’t articles don’t show in the Feed. When you add a site without a feed, enter its blog or news page, like https://example.com/blog, rather than the home page.

An account never gets any posts. It may be private, restricted, or the username may be misspelled. Check the username on your brand’s Discover tab. See Discover Sources.

Is Discover real-time? No. Discover updates once a day for most sources and once a week for Reddit.