Pinterest

Register a Pinterest app, connect accounts, test in the Pinterest sandbox, and publish image, carousel and video pins to a board.

MagicPost creates pins on a Pinterest board. You register one app in Pinterest Developers, and each user connects their own Pinterest account through it.

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What you need

• A Pinterest business account.
• Your site served over HTTPS.
• Access to Admin → Publishing → Platforms.

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Register the app on Pinterest

1. Create the app

   Sign in to Pinterest Developers with a Pinterest business account and create an app.

2. Get the redirect URI from MagicPost

   In MagicPost, go to Admin → Publishing → Platforms and click Add credentials on the Pinterest card. Under What to register, copy the Redirect URI:

   https://your-domain.com/publishing/pinterest/callback
   
3. Add it to the app

   Add the redirect URI to the app’s redirect URIs.

4. Copy the keys

   Copy the App ID and the App secret key.

5. Store them in MagicPost

   Paste the ID into Client ID and the secret into Client secret. Tick Available to users and click Save. Then click Run checks and confirm the card shows Live.

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Permissions MagicPost asks for

Scope	Used for
boards:read	Listing the boards a pin can go on.
pins:read	Reading pins and their performance.
pins:write	Creating pins.
user_accounts:read	Reading the account’s name, handle, picture and counts.

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Trial access and the sandbox

New Pinterest apps start on Trial access. An app on Trial access may only create pins in the Pinterest sandbox, where only the posting account can see them.

1. Test in the sandbox

   In the setup panel, tick Use the Pinterest sandbox. Pins then go to https://api-sandbox.pinterest.com/v5. The card shows a Sandbox badge, the composer shows a note on the Pinterest channel, and the connection check shows a Sandbox warning.

2. Apply for Standard access

   Apply to Pinterest for Standard access before people rely on the channel.

3. Switch the sandbox off

   Once the app has Standard access, untick Use the Pinterest sandbox so pins go out for real.

Connecting an account and reading boards use the live Pinterest API in both modes. Only creating pins, and the video uploads that belong to them, go to the sandbox.

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Connect a Pinterest account

1. Open Channels

   Under Publishing in the sidebar, click Channels.

2. Add the account

   In Add a channel, click Pinterest. Sign in on Pinterest and approve access.

3. Confirm

   You return to Channels with one Profile channel. The channel is named after the business name when there is one.

While connecting, MagicPost reads the account’s boards and stores them on the channel, so the composer can offer them by name. It reads up to 500 boards.

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What you can publish

Pinterest has one post type, Pin. A pin always needs an image or a video.

Setting	Limit
Text	800 characters, used as the pin description.
Images	1 to 5. jpg, jpeg or png. Up to 20 MB each. One image makes a pin, two to five make a carousel.
Video	1. mp4, mov or m4v. Up to 2,048 MB. 4 to 900 seconds long.
Mixed media	Not allowed.
First comment	No.

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Pin options

Set these under Settings for the channel in the composer.

Option	Required	What it does
Board	Yes	The board the pin goes on.
Title	No	Up to 100 characters.
Destination link	No	Up to 2,048 characters. When empty, the shared Link from the First comment and link card is used.
Alt text	No	Up to 500 characters. Leave it blank to use the image’s own alt text from the media library.

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Boards

• Every pin goes on a board. The Board list shows the boards stored on the channel.
• A board you create on Pinterest after connecting is picked up by Check connection, which reloads the list.
• When the list is empty, the field reads Nothing to pick from yet and asks you to reconnect the channel so MagicPost can load the list from Pinterest.

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Images and video

• Images are sent to Pinterest as bytes, so image pins work even when your site cannot be reached from the internet. Images that exceed the size or format rules are converted automatically, see Where limits come from.
• A video is registered with Pinterest, uploaded to the address Pinterest gives, and then processed by Pinterest. The post shows that Pinterest is still processing, and MagicPost checks again about every 20 seconds.
• Pinterest refuses a video pin without a cover. MagicPost uses the video’s preview image from the media library. It sends it by address when Pinterest can reach it, otherwise as bytes, and as a last resort asks Pinterest to pick a frame itself.

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Connection check

Item	Result
Account	Signed in as NAME.
Boards	N boards to pin to. Warns with Every pin goes on a board, and none were found. Create a board on Pinterest, then check again. when the list is empty.
Sandbox	Warns when the sandbox is on: Pins go to the Pinterest sandbox, so only this account can see them.

Each check also refreshes the board list.

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Reconnecting

Pinterest tokens renew with a refresh token. If Pinterest refuses the renewal or a post, the channel becomes Expired and the owner is notified. Reconnect it from Channels. See Channel states.

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Analytics

Level	Figures
Pin	Saves (shown as shares), clicks (pin clicks plus outbound clicks) and impressions, over the last 30 days.
Channel	Followers, following, number of pins, and impressions and engagements over the last 30 days.

See Analytics.

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Common errors

Pinterest only lets an app on Trial access create pins in its sandbox

The app has not been approved for Standard access. An administrator can tick Use the Pinterest sandbox under Platforms to test, or apply to Pinterest for Standard access to publish for real.

The Pinterest sandbox did not accept this channel's sign-in

Reconnect the channel, or switch the sandbox off once the app has Standard access.

Choose the board this pin should go to

The Board option is empty. Pick a board in the composer.

Pinterest could not find that board

The board was deleted or is not available to this account. Pick another board.

A Pinterest carousel takes up to 5 images

Remove images until five or fewer remain.

Pinterest refused the video pin

Pinterest needs a cover image it can fetch. Check that the video has a preview in the media library and that your site can be reached from the internet.

Pinterest could not process the video

Pinterest takes MP4, MOV or M4V files between 4 seconds and 15 minutes long.

Redirect URI mismatch when connecting

The URI added to the Pinterest app differs from the Redirect URI in MagicPost. Copy it again from the setup panel.

Rate limits and Pinterest server errors are retried automatically. See Failed posts.