Start here: which kind of “not working” is yours?
| Symptom | Most likely cause | Fixable? |
|---|---|---|
| Apify actor gone or returns nothing | Apify removed all community Apollo actors | Not that actor; replacements exist, with caveats |
| “No Results” in a Chrome extension | Apollo changed its page markup, or the extension is rate-limited | Sometimes, by the vendor |
| Export runs but emails are blank | Apollo did not reveal the email for those rows | Yes, bill only on emails found |
| Export stops partway | Session timeout or page-level cap | Yes, resume page by page |
| Columns missing from the CSV | Scraper only reads visible columns | Yes, change the Apollo view |
| Apollo account restricted or logged out | Shared-account or aggressive automation patterns | Partly, change method |
| n8n / Make / Clay workflow erroring | The actor or endpoint it called no longer exists | Yes, repoint the step |
| Credits gone, nothing downloaded | Credits charged on attempt, not on delivery | Depends on the vendor |
1. Your Apify Apollo actor is gone
On 22 September 2025, Apify removed every community Apollo actor, stating that they worked only “using Apollo accounts, which constitutes a breach of their terms” (Apify Discord). The actor your workflow called is not coming back. As of 31 October 2026 one cookie-based actor, datasaurus/apollo-ppe, is listed again: it takes an Apollo search URL plus cookies exported from your browser and runs that session from Apify’s servers, which is the pattern Apify cited for the original removal. The other Apollo-named actors on Apify query their own databases or call Apollo’s paid API with your key, so they do not export the search you built.
What confuses people is that a [DEPRECATED] actor sub-page still ranked first for “apify apollo scraper” as of 7 October 2026. The listing surviving in Google does not mean the actor runs.
Fix: stop debugging the actor. Move to a method that runs the export inside your own Apollo session. See Apify Apollo scraper alternative for the dated timeline and the full price comparison.
2. “No Results” in a Chrome extension
This is the most-reported extension failure. Apollo periodically changes its result-page markup, and any extension that reads the rendered page breaks until its author ships an update. Extensions that page through results quickly also hit rate limits, which surfaces as an empty result rather than an error.
Fix: there is nothing you can do from your side except wait for the vendor, reduce your page size, or change method. Apollo scraper Chrome extensions compared tracks which extensions are live and which are affected.
3. The export ran, but the email column is empty
This is usually not a broken scraper. Apollo does not reveal an email for every contact in every search, and no tool can export a field Apollo never returned. A scraper that reports “0 emails found” on a list of 2,000 is often reporting the truth about that list.
The question that matters is what you were charged. Apollo Exporter bills per email Apollo returns: rows with no email are in your file and free, so an email-poor search costs you a fraction of an email-rich one.
Fix: check the revealed-email rate in Apollo before exporting, and pick a tool that bills on what it delivers. See Apollo database accuracy.
4. The export stopped partway through
Long exports fail for two mundane reasons: your Apollo session expired mid-run, or you hit a per-page or per-export cap and the tool treated the cap as the end of the data.
Fix: confirm the real limit for your plan first. Apollo export limits sets out the per-page and per-export caps. Then use a method that works page by page through your search and keeps what it has already pulled, so a timeout costs you one page rather than the run.
5. Columns are missing from the CSV
Most extensions export only what is visible in your Apollo table. Change which columns Apollo displays and the CSV changes with it. If phone numbers, seniority or company size are absent, they were probably never on screen.
Fix: add the columns to your Apollo view before exporting, or use a route that pulls the full record rather than the rendered table. How to export leads from Apollo walks through the field set.
6. Your Apollo account got restricted
The pattern that triggers restrictions is not “using a tool”. It is behaviour that does not look like a person: a shared or pooled Apollo account used by many customers at once, logins from an unfamiliar country, or thousands of pages pulled without pause.
This is the central reason Apollo Exporter runs each export in your own session rather than a shared account. Your Apollo access is your asset; a service that pools accounts is spending it on everyone’s behalf.
Fix: stop using any tool that logs into a shared Apollo account. Is scraping Apollo legal? covers the terms-of-service position and the account-risk question honestly, including where the risk genuinely sits.
7. Your n8n, Make or Clay workflow started erroring
If the broken step calls one of the removed Apify Apollo actors, see cause 1: that endpoint is gone, and no retry or credential change will bring it back. The error you see will usually be a 404 or an empty dataset rather than an auth failure, which is the tell.
Fix: repoint the step at an API that still exists. Apollo Exporter’s Apollo scraper API starts an export, lets you poll its status and returns the verified CSV, which maps onto the same three-step shape your old workflow used. The free Apollo search URL parser handles the filter-parsing step and needs no account.
8. Credits disappeared and no file arrived
Some services decrement credits when an export is attempted. A run that fails halfway can therefore cost you the full amount with nothing to download, and whether that is refundable depends entirely on the vendor’s policy rather than on anything you did.
Fix: before buying credits anywhere, read the refund terms. Apollo Exporter’s balance never expires, a failed export is not charged, and its refund policy is published; the rates are on pricing.
What actually still works in 2026
Three routes survive, and they differ in who bears the risk:
- A Chrome extension in your own session. Cheap and account-safe, but breaks whenever Apollo changes its markup, and exports only the columns you can see.
- A cloud service with a pooled Apollo account. Fast, no install, and the method Apify shut down. The account risk is pooled, which means it is not only yours.
- Your own session, driven by a bridge. Apollo Exporter takes a pasted URL and runs the export page by page through your own Apollo session, then runs every email through BounceBan before you download, so the CSV you get has already been checked rather than sold to you unverified.
Prices as published on 7 October 2026: Apify Leads Finder $1.50 per 1,000 (database, not a live export, no verification); Ample Leads $2.20 to $2.50; ScraperCity $3.90 per 1,000; EvaScrape $9 plus $5 for verification; Scrupp roughly $52 to $63 per 1,000 with emails. Apollo Exporter is $3 per 1,000 BounceBan-checked emails, $0.50 per 1,000 rows without emails, $1 per 1,000 companies and $0.05 per direct dial, pay as you go with 500 free credits on sign-up. Where a rival does not state whether its export is live or verified, this page does not claim it is.
Full working-out: best Apollo scrapers compared.