@Gargron sorry. wasn't trying to be unclear.
sometimes everything on the instance stops. as in no new content in federated timeline or home. if I try to follow someone, it says pending even if they don't require approval.
But if I restart those 3x services, my home screen and timeline will fill up and display new content, and I'm able to follow those same accounts with one click.
@jeff Did you check if restarting only mastodon-sidekiq did the trick?