How to schedule recurring bulk ticket updates in Freshdesk

You do the same clean-up again and again: close stale tickets, move old ones to another group, set a field on everything that has sat for 60 days. You want it to run on a schedule instead of on somebody's to-do list. This guide covers the native ways, their limits, and an app option.

The short answer

Freshdesk's native scheduler for ticket changes is the automation rule that runs on hourly triggers. It is fast to set up and fine for many jobs, with a few limits that matter for older tickets. Bulk Update and scenarios are manual: somebody has to start them.

Native option 1: hourly-trigger automation rules

Freshdesk's articles Setting up automation rules to run on Hourly Triggers and Overview of Automation Rules describe rules that scan tickets once an hour and act when a ticket has been in a state for a set time, for example closing resolved tickets after 48 hours. To set one up, go to Admin > Workflows > Automation Rules and create a rule on the hourly triggers tab.

What to know before you rely on them:

Only recently updated tickets are processed. The rules match tickets updated in the last 30 days, and resolved or closed tickets idle for more than 30 days are excluded. A rule cannot sweep up tickets that have been untouched for 90 days.
Timing is approximate. The rules run on an hourly schedule, so a rule set for five hours can run after five hours and 58 minutes. They use calendar hours, not business hours.
Some conditions and actions are not available. Conditions on email properties such as subject or description, tags, ticket forms and attachments cannot be used. Actions such as adding notes, adding CCs and triggering webhooks cannot be used.
Order matters. Enabled rules run from top to bottom.
Rule statistics, not a change file. The articles describe when a rule was last modified and its statistics. They do not describe a per-ticket list of old and new values.

Native option 2: Bulk Update and scenarios, by hand

Bulk Update. In the ticket list, filter or search, tick the tickets, click Bulk Update, choose the fields and click Update (ticket list view article). A person does this every time.
Scenario automations. A scenario bundles several actions into one macro, and Freshdesk lets you execute it on one ticket or in bulk (scenarios article). It still runs only when an agent executes it.

Option 3: your own script on a timer

The Freshdesk API has /api/v2/tickets/bulk_update, which starts a background job and returns a job ID, and a search that returns 30 tickets per page and at most 10 pages. Freshdesk also notes that updates take a few minutes to be indexed for search. A scheduled script therefore has to split date ranges, wait for the job, check the result and keep its own record. The first part is covered in How to bulk update more than 300 Freshdesk tickets. Scheduling, error handling and a place to run it are yours to build.

Option 4: Saved Bulk Actions Pro, for Freshdesk users (coming soon)

Saved Bulk Actions Pro works with Freshdesk. It is the full Saved Bulk Actions app (find every matching ticket past the 300-result search cap, preview, dry run, verified batches) plus recurring actions:

After a dry run, you save the change as a recurring action with a name, a frequency (hourly, daily or weekly), and which tickets each run covers: a date field older than N days, or within the last N days, with N from 1 to 365.
You also set the most tickets one run may change. A run whose matches exceed that number writes nothing and is recorded as skipped. A run with no matches is recorded as such, and an error is stored with Freshdesk's reason.
Saving requires typing EXECUTE, because later runs write without anyone watching.
Actions can be paused, and a paused action never runs. A missed slot is skipped rather than replayed.

Limits. A Freshworks app may have one recurring schedule per installation, so Pro uses one heartbeat that checks every 15 minutes and advances one step of one action. An installation holds at most 20 recurring actions. Because Freshdesk search indexes a just-edited ticket after a short delay, a run started seconds after an edit can miss it, and the next run picks it up. Pro does not promise a completion time, and large runs are paced under the Freshworks limit of 50 requests per minute. It writes only the fields you choose.

Status and price. Saved Bulk Actions Pro is a separate paid app from the free Saved Bulk Actions, which has no scheduling. Pro is in Freshworks Marketplace review and coming soon on the Freshworks Marketplace. It cannot be installed by the public yet. The planned Marketplace price is $29 per account per month, billed by Freshworks.

The free Saved Bulk Actions on the Freshworks Marketplace

Which route fits

Recently active tickets, simple conditions, no record needed: an hourly-trigger rule.
Old or stale tickets, a safety cap per run, or a dry run first: a script, or an app such as Saved Bulk Actions Pro once it is available.
A one-off change across thousands of tickets: the free Saved Bulk Actions.

Atesen Software is independent. Freshdesk and Freshworks are trademarks of Freshworks Inc., and this page is not affiliated with or endorsed by Freshworks. Freshdesk articles were checked on 12 October 2026; menus and plan limits can change.

Questions about this guide: support@atesensoftware.com.