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Banks periodically require you to sign in again to keep a connection alive. When that happens, Budget Bandit stops receiving new transactions for that institution until you reconnect. Reconnecting reuses the existing link — it does not create new accounts or duplicate your history.

When you need to reconnect

On Settings, then Connections, a linked institution shows one of these states:
StatusWhat it meansAction
ConnectedHealthy, syncing normallyNone
Expiring soonThe bank will require re-auth shortlyReconnect when convenient
Reconnect requiredThe bank dropped the sessionReconnect now
ErrorThe last sync failedReconnect, then sync
When a state other than Connected appears, a Reconnect button shows next to the institution.

Reconnect

1

Open Connections

Go to Settings, then Connections, and find the institution that needs attention.
2

Choose Reconnect

Select Reconnect. Budget Bandit opens the Plaid window pointed at your existing connection.
3

Verify your identity if asked

Reconnecting touches a linked bank, so it is a sensitive action. If you have two-factor authentication on your account, Budget Bandit asks for your authenticator code before continuing. Enter the code to proceed. See Two-factor authentication.
4

Sign in at your bank

Complete your bank’s sign-in or approval inside the Plaid window.
5

Done

The institution flips back to Connected. Choose Sync now to pull any transactions that accumulated while it was down.
Reconnecting keeps the same accounts and access. You will not be asked to map accounts again, and no new accounts are created.

After reconnecting

New transactions that arrived during the outage land in your To Review queue, unapproved. Pending items that posted while the feed was down are promoted in place rather than duplicated. See Pending vs posted.

If reconnect does not stick

  • The bank window errors out: close it and try again — banks sometimes rate-limit back-to-back attempts.
  • It immediately returns to Reconnect required: confirm your bank login works on the bank’s own website first, then retry.
  • Still stuck: Fix sync problems or contact support.

Connect a bank

Link an institution for the first time.

Fix sync problems

A connection that is healthy but stale.

Two-factor authentication

Set up the code Budget Bandit asks for on sensitive actions.

Bank sync troubleshooting

Deeper diagnosis for stubborn connections.