Use this when: you’ve changed a feed’s cadence, run time, timezone, weekdays or end condition, and the schedules already running should adopt it too.
By default they won’t — and that’s deliberate. A feed save must never silently rewrite live schedules.
The Two Routes #
Both end at the same preview-and-confirm screen.
Route A — while saving the feed #
- Edit the feed at Forms → (your form) → Settings → Recurring Submissions.
- Before saving, tick “Apply the updated schedule to N existing series.” It is unchecked every time.
- Save. Queue opens a preview. Nothing has propagated yet.
- Review and confirm.
Route B — after saving #
- Save your feed changes normally.
- Follow “Preview and apply saved schedule to existing series.”
- Review and confirm.
Choosing Which Series #
On the preview screen:
- Enter specific series IDs to target a subset, or
- leave the selection blank to target every non-completed series on that feed.
What the Preview Shows #
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Affected count | How many series this will touch. |
| Representative current schedule | What they look like now. |
| Representative proposed schedule | What they’ll look like after. |
| Proposed targets | The actual next dates they’ll move to. |
Read the proposed targets carefully — they are the part people are surprised by.
What Application Does #
| Copies | Preserves | Never does |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule settings | Progress and successful counts | Backfills missed occurrences |
| A new series revision | Attempt history | Resumes a paused series |
| A recalculated future target | Input mode and other execution choices | Touches locked or concurrently changed series |
Locked or concurrently changed series are skipped and reported — you’ll see which ones didn’t apply.
Work runs in bounded batches, so a feed with hundreds of series completes without timing out.
What Is Not Applied #
Application deliberately covers schedule settings only. These stay as each series recorded them:
- Input mode (Snapshot / Dynamic).
- Other execution choices.
A schedule snapshot is not a freeze of every feed setting: feed activation and live submission-related settings keep their runtime behaviour regardless.
Choosing the Right Tool #
| Goal | Tool |
|---|---|
| Change how often new series repeat | Edit the feed. Done. |
| Change how often existing series repeat | Edit the feed, then apply the saved schedule. |
| Move one series to a different date | Change next submission on that series. |
| Move one series to a different cadence | Edit the feed, then apply the saved schedule to that series ID only. |
| Stop a feed’s schedules temporarily | Deactivate the feed. |
Worked Example #
A weekly Monday 09:00 check-in should become fortnightly on Wednesdays at 14:00, for the 40 series already running.
- Edit the feed: Repeat every
2, Calendar unitWeeks, Specified time14:00, uncheck every weekday except Wednesday. - Preview the next five occurrences and confirm they read the way you expect.
- Tick “Apply the updated schedule to 40 existing series.”
- Save, and read the preview: 40 affected, current weekly Monday 09:00, proposed fortnightly Wednesday 14:00, with the proposed next dates listed.
- Confirm.
All 40 keep their progress, their limits and their history. None of them backfill. Any that were mid-submission are skipped and listed, so you can re-apply to those afterwards.
