Overview
You might have set an auto-close rule that will help you easily close a large number of tickets that have been inactive for some time in Kayako Classic but the rule does not seem to take effect.
Information
The most common reason why this problem occurs is due to the Inactivity threshold and the Closure threshold parameters that were set on the auto-close rule.
First, you need to understand the Inactivity threshold is not retroactive, which means the system will start counting only from the moment the auto-close rule or trigger is activated. As such, if you set the Inactivity threshold to say, 72 hours, the help desk will wait for 72 hours after saving your rule for it to take effect. If no update is made to a ticket within the next 72 hours, then the ticket will be considered inactive. It does not count the previous "inactivity" of the ticket prior to setting up the rule.
Now, once the ticket has been considered inactive, the Closure threshold will be in effect. If a ticket has been marked as inactive and still no update is received within the Closure threshold hours, the ticket will be automatically set to the status you specified in the rule (i.e., Closed).
By setting the Inactivity threshold and Closure threshold to a lower value, the tickets which criteria you have set in the rule will be marked as closed (or to whatever status specified on the rule) if you wish to immediately close those tickets.
Note For Download Customers:
If you are using the self-hosted version of Kayako Classic, you'll also need to set up an external cron on the server for the auto-close rule to run as expected. For help, have a look at our user guide article on setting up a server cron or scheduled task.