Smart Support – Auto-Close Alert adds extra controls to the ticket auto-close process. These settings allow you to decide how often inactive tickets are processed, how many tickets are handled per run, and when customers should receive warning reminders before their ticket is automatically closed.
You can configure these options from: Smart Support > Settings > General > Ticket Closing
Auto-Close Cron Recurrence
The auto-close cron recurrence controls how often WordPress runs the background auto-close job. Available options typically include:
- Every hour
- Twice daily
- Once daily
- Once weekly
When you save the settings, Auto-Close Alert automatically reschedules the cron event based on the selected recurrence.
Choosing a Cron Recurrence
Choose the recurrence based on your support volume and how precise you want auto-close timing to be.
- Every Hour: Hourly processing is useful for high-volume teams or teams that want warning reminders and ticket closures to happen as close to the expected time as possible.
- Twice Daily: Twice-daily processing is a balanced option for teams that want regular processing without running the auto-close job too frequently.
- Once Daily: Daily processing is a good default for most support teams. It keeps inactive ticket processing predictable while reducing background job frequency.
- Once Weekly: Weekly processing should only be used when you want very infrequent ticket closure processing.
Because the job runs less often, warning reminders and auto-close actions may not happen as precisely as they would with a more frequent schedule.
Auto-Close Batch Limit
The auto-close batch limit controls how many tickets can be processed or closed during a single cron run.
This is useful for large sites where processing too many tickets at once could cause performance issues or server timeouts.
The batch limit accepts a number.
- 0 means no limit.
- A value such as 25, 50, or 100 limits each run to that number of tickets.
For large sites, a starting range of 25–100 is recommended.
Warning Email Reminders
Auto-Close Alert can send up to three warning emails before an inactive ticket is automatically closed.
These reminders notify customers that their ticket will close soon unless further action is taken.
Warning reminders are configured in: Smart Support > Settings > General > Ticket Closing
Look for the Inactivity warning emails section.
Configuring Warning Slots
Each warning slot can be enabled or disabled separately.
For each slot, configure:
- Whether the warning is enabled
- How many hours before auto-close the reminder should be sent
You can use one, two, or three warning reminders depending on your support policy.
For example:
| Warning Slot | Hours Before Auto-Close | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Warning 1 | 72 hours | Early reminder |
| Warning 2 | 24 hours | Final-day reminder |
| Warning 3 | 3 hours | Last reminder before closure |
How Hours Before Auto-Close Works
The “Hours before auto-close” value determines when a reminder should be sent relative to the auto-close deadline.
For example, if the core Smart Support auto-close threshold is set to 30 days, the ticket becomes eligible for closure after approximately 720 hours of inactivity.
A reminder set to 72 hours before auto-close is sent at around 648 hours of inactivity.
This timing depends on the cron recurrence schedule. More frequent cron runs usually result in more precise reminder timing.
Warning Reminder Conditions
Warning reminders are sent only when all required conditions are met.
The ticket must still be eligible for auto-close processing, and the warning slot must not have already been sent for that ticket.
In addition:
- Smart Support email notifications must be enabled.
- The Auto-Close Warning email template must be enabled.
- At least one warning reminder slot must be enabled.
Smart Support email notifications can be enabled from: Smart Support > Settings > Email > Enable Email Notifications
Auto-Close Alert gives administrators control over how inactive ticket auto-close processing runs.
Use cron recurrence to control processing frequency, batch limits to protect performance, and warning reminders to notify customers before their inactive tickets are closed.