The count in the message is a count of successes, not a report. Ticking five items and pressing Connect Selected sends five separate requests, and the message afterwards names only how many of them worked. The ones that did not are not mentioned at all.
The same is true on the Publications step, which works the same way.
Where the missing ones went
An item drops out of the count for one of two reasons, and only one of them is a problem.
- It was already connected. Ticking something the project already has does nothing, and it is counted as a failure even though the outcome is exactly what you wanted. This is the usual explanation, and there is nothing to fix.
- The request was refused. Most often that is permission: you need edit rights on the project to connect anything to it. A refusal on those grounds raises its own message at the time, so if you saw one, that is what happened.
A general message, Failed to connect journals. You may not have permission., appears only when not a single one worked. If any succeeded you will never see it, which is why a partial failure passes in silence.
What to do about it
Do not press Connect Selected again with the same selection. Anything that did connect the first time will now be treated as already connected, so the number you get back will be smaller still and no clearer.
Instead, close the picker and read the list of connected items on the step itself. That list is reloaded after every connect, so it is accurate. Anything genuinely missing can then be ticked and connected on its own, where success or failure is unambiguous.
Why it takes a moment
The requests go out one at a time, 200 milliseconds apart, rather than all together. Connecting ten items therefore takes about two seconds before any message appears. That pacing is deliberate and there is nothing to speed up.