Firing schedule for time in status automation

[Brandon Hennegan x368]

I am working on setting an automation to set a new status when a ticket has exceeded a time limit.  I'm choosing the "Time in status" trigger. 

After configuring it, the logs seems to indicate that it fired one time for one ticket.  No failures listed.   What is the expectation here?  Should this run every day/hour/minute?  Does it look at tickets that existed prior to the rule addition?    I can't decide if my steps are insufficient, or if there is a triggering step that is missing or I am totally misunderstanding how this should work.

e.g.  Final rule:

When this happens...

Issue is in "In Progress" for 7d

If these match...

Issue matches:updated <= -1w+

Then do this...

Transition issue to "Backlog"

[Cody Stevens · Accepted solution]

Hey @Brandon Hennegan x368 

This rule will trigger once the timer reaches your set time. In your case its looking at all tickets (I think based off the screenshot), and then it will only trigger if the ticket has been in the status "In Progress" for 7 days.

Once the 7 days is up, it will run, check your set conditions and if it passes, it will run the actions in the then section.

A good way to test this is to do this in a project you are okay with making test tickets in, create the same rule but then use 2 minutes instead of days and see if it runs successfully on new issues.

I do not believe this can run on tickets that already met the trigger event because the event has already been fired and cant be refired. If you have a large amount of issues that you want to be moved to the backlog, you can use the advanced issue search, find the correct issues using JQL and then bulk edit the issues to transition them to the backlog.

[Brandon Hennegan x368]

THANKS! I think your last sentence there is exactly what was hanging me up.  So, the event trigger is the time elapsing past the set threshhold in real time and it won't see "old" tickets that have already passed.  Do you know if that trigger event is reset when  the status changes?   e.g.  I have a ticket "in progress" for 3 days, I move it to "on hold"  for a month, then put it back "in progress".   Do I now have 4 days or 7 days before the rule would trigger?   

[Cody Stevens]

No problem!

The trigger will be reset anytime the ticket enters the target status. If you changed back from in progress to on hold every 5 minutes, the timer would restart each time it reenters "In Progress".

It sounds like my answer resolved your question though, if it did, do you mind marking it as the accepted answer? It helps the community know that this is resolved and what resolved it. If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask!

[Brandon Hennegan x368]

any tips on how to pull "time in status" in a search?  It's just giving me the is/is not Empty option for that field.  Doesn't seem to be a date/int type field.