Why can't I reopen this item?

Reopening is available on items a person closed. It is not available on items Scout closed on evidence, and muted items need an administrator. Which one you are looking at is written on the receipt.

If the receipt says the evidence settled it

Scout closed the item because the source showed the question was answered: the reply arrived, the payment posted, the purchase order came back acknowledged. There is no hand-reopen for these, on purpose. Reopening would put an item on your list that the underlying record says is already resolved, and the next read would close it again.

What to do instead:

• If the evidence is right but there is more to do, the further work is its own thing. Scout will raise it when the conditions are met, or you can work it directly from the thread or record.
• If the evidence is wrong — the reply was not really an answer, the payment was for something else — mark the point Wrong from the archive. That is the signal that changes Scout's behavior, and it removes the item from the Found ledger.

If the receipt says it was muted

An Owner or Admin muted it for the whole workspace. Only an Owner or Admin can reopen it. Ask one of them, and give them the reason it should come back.

If it was handled or dismissed by a person

Then Reopen is available to anyone with authority over that item. Reopening returns it to the Inbox and keeps the old closure receipt alongside the new activity — nothing is rewritten. It also preserves any assignment that was in place, so the item may come back already claimed rather than sitting in the queue.

Good to know

• A Viewer cannot reopen anything, and the Reopen control only appears when you hold the authority to use it — so its absence is itself an answer.
• Receipts are permanent. The record of how something closed the first time stays readable in Settled.