# Move back lifecycle stages automtion **URL:** \ **Category:** HubSpot Ideas\ **Tags:** workflows\ **Created:** [July 19, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/move-back-lifecycle-stages-automtion/85673 "2023-07-19T16:30:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JFrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed655f/32.png) [@JFrey](https://community.hubspot.com/u/JFrey)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/move-back-lifecycle-stages-automtion/85673/1 "2023-07-19T16:30:56Z")
Its incredibly painful that lifecycle stages cannot move backwards, if its something users leverage to assess an “actual” lifecycle stage. A contact/company can move through the stages, and then go back to stage (1) as its being contacted again by a new seller. Not being able to automate this workflow, is a huge pain for our team, as it requires the sellers to do this manual, with lots of errors down the line.. ---
**Author:** ![ChelsyAtGWS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@ChelsyAtGWS](https://community.hubspot.com/u/ChelsyAtGWS)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 3:44pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/move-back-lifecycle-stages-automtion/85673/2 "2025-07-21T15:44:40Z")
This! Our company’s goal with Lost Prospects and Clients IS to move them back to Sales Qualified or Clients. Additionally, there are times when someone was mistakenly moved to a stage or stage requirements change and cause some leads to be moved back in the lifecycle. This shouldn’t be impossible in automations as it is today. ---
**Author:** ![KelHill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@KelHill](https://community.hubspot.com/u/KelHill)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2026, 9:35pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/move-back-lifecycle-stages-automtion/85673/3 "2026-08-18T21:35:33Z")
Agreed! Very much needed. Now that lifecycles and pipelines have the option to turn off forward direction moves only, to allow moves in either direction, workflows need to honor those settings rather than continuing to enforce forward-only movements. This mismatch makes a great many of our desired automations impossible, as the workflow crashes when a user makes a stage change that is not forward. Workflows are now incompatible with pipelines and lifecycle stages that permit non-linear movements. ---
**Author:** ![zdz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/f6c823/32.png) [@zdz](https://community.hubspot.com/u/zdz)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2026, 3:40pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/move-back-lifecycle-stages-automtion/85673/5 "2026-09-29T15:40:13Z")
_Hi everyone,_ _I’m Zita, the product manager for pipelines._ _Thank you for taking the time to share this idea — we genuinely read and consider everything submitted here._ _After review, we don’t have plans to build this right now. This is actually something we find interesting, but we have higher-priority work in flight that we need to see through first. It’s on our radar for future consideration._ _That said, we revisit our roadmap regularly, and customer ideas like this one do influence what we prioritize. Please continue to upvote this if you’re encountering this pain point._ ---
**Author:** ![KelHill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@KelHill](https://community.hubspot.com/u/KelHill)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2026, 4:05pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/move-back-lifecycle-stages-automtion/85673/6 "2026-09-29T16:05:16Z")
This is particularly frustrating because HubSpot already enhanced the pipelines themselves, so that admins can designate selected pipelines so that users can move both forward and backward through its stages. To let users move backwards through stages, but disallow automations to do so severely cripples the usefulness of automations/workflows. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonCS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@BrandonCS](https://community.hubspot.com/u/BrandonCS)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 1:31pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/move-back-lifecycle-stages-automtion/85673/7 "2026-10-07T13:31:31Z")
@JFrey I run into this a lot. HubSpot’s lifecycle stage only moves forward in workflows. If you try to set an earlier stage, nothing happens. The fix is to clear it first, then set it again: - Add a “edit record” action for Lifecycle stage and clear it - Add a second action right after it (edit record) - Set Lifecycle stage to the earlier stage you want, like Sales Qualified Lead - Do the same for companies if you need to Two things to watch. Check that the stage you’re setting is one your team really wants to go back to. The two steps normally work back to back. If the second one ever doesn’t stick, adding a short delay between them is a simple thing to try. Hope this helps! ![Screenshot 2026-10-07 095353](https://d2qpr2jzcazej7.cloudfront.net/original/3X/8/f/8fb7fc440b01ec565c7380e8d9be79319cb9566f.png) ---
**Author:** ![KelHill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@KelHill](https://community.hubspot.com/u/KelHill)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 2:16pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/move-back-lifecycle-stages-automtion/85673/8 "2026-10-07T14:16:17Z")
Thanks so much for the workaround, Brandon!