Schedule syncs, and what "Overdue" means

Scheduled syncs let a connection pull its supplier feed on a repeating clock, without you opening the app. You choose the cadence when you connect the supplier, and you can change it any time on the connection page. A recurring schedule is the one sync feature paid plans add over Free, so on Free a connection runs only when you ask it to. Plans also differ in how many suppliers you can connect.

Where the setting lives

In the Connect a supplier wizard, Schedule is the last section, and its only control is a Sync frequency menu. The wizard saves from Save connection in the page header, not from a button at the foot of the form.

On an existing connection, the same setting lives under Sync scope & schedule, next to an Enable scheduled sync checkbox. That form saves through the Shopify admin save bar, which appears at the top of the page once you change something; it has no in-page save button. While the frequency is Manual, the checkbox is disabled and explains why: "Choose a frequency other than Manual to schedule syncs."

A connection created in the wizard starts with scheduled sync already enabled, so choosing a recurring frequency there is enough to put it on the clock.

The four frequencies and when they actually run

Sync frequency offers Manual, Hourly, Every 6 hours, and Daily.

Manual means no schedule at all. The connection runs only when you click Sync now or Preview changes.

Hourly runs at the top of every hour. Every 6 hours runs at 00:00, 06:00, 12:00, and 18:00. Daily runs once at 03:00. Those are clock times on the server that runs the sync worker, not times in your store's own zone.

They are also not what the app's next-sync value shows. That value is worked out from the connection's last run plus its interval, so an hourly connection last synced at 10:17 reads 11:17 even though the recurring job fires at 11:00. Read it as "roughly when this is due" rather than as a countdown to an exact tick. Every date in the admin is printed in UTC with the zone shown, so the value itself is never ambiguous.

Scheduled runs land in Sync history exactly like a manual one, and they count as the connection's "Last run".

Check your supplier's limits before choosing Hourly

Hourly is not automatically the best choice. Several supplier APIs cap how often you may call them, or refresh their own data more slowly than once an hour, so polling harder gains you nothing and can get calls rejected.

BigBuy publishes a limit of 10 requests per hour on its stock endpoint, so run that connection hourly at most. The Lipsey's feed refreshes at most once an hour, so hourly is its ceiling too. Turn 14 Distribution publishes no API usage policy, and the public integrator guidance treats its main inventory feed as a once a day pull, so start that connection on Daily and check with your Turn 14 rep before running it more often. Each preset repeats its own cadence note in the wizard, in the banner that appears when you pick the preset. When in doubt, start slower and move up.

Free plans are manual only, and the server enforces it

On a plan without scheduled syncs, the only option in Sync frequency is "Manual only", under an info banner headed "Scheduled syncs need a paid plan".

That gate is enforced on the server, not just in the menu. If a recurring frequency reaches the save anyway (for example from a direct form post), it is reverted to manual and scheduled sync is switched off. The banner then opens with "Your last save kept this supplier on manual." so the reverted choice is not silent.

Manual syncing is untouched. Sync now and Preview changes work normally on Free. If you later downgrade, recurring jobs stop but your connections and history are kept, and the frequency already stored on a connection is left alone so a re-upgrade can restore it. One caveat: while you are on Free the menu offers Manual and nothing else, so saving Sync scope & schedule on that connection writes Manual over the stored value. Leave that form alone if you want your old cadence back on re-upgrade.

The catch-up sweep

A sweep runs every 15 minutes and queues a catch-up sync for any scheduled connection that is past due, for example because the worker or its queue was unavailable. It is deduplicated, so repeated sweeps do not pile up duplicate jobs. Saving a connection runs the same check for that shop, which is why a schedule you enable on a connection that has never synced starts without waiting for the next clock tick. A connection that synced recently is not yet past due, so that one does wait.

What "Overdue" means

The Overdue badge means more than "past due". It appears only once a connection is past its interval multiplied by 1.5, which is the same threshold the catch-up sweep uses, so the badge means what the system acting on it means.

In practice an hourly connection is badged once more than 90 minutes have passed since its last sync, not at 61 minutes. Every 6 hours is badged past 9 hours, and Daily past 36 hours. A scheduled connection that has never synced counts as overdue right away. A connection set to Manual, or one with Enable scheduled sync switched off, never shows the badge, because it has no schedule to miss.

The badge shows in three places: the Dashboard's Next scheduled sync card, the Next sync column on the Connections list, and Next scheduled sync on the connection page.

What the next-sync value shows

The Connections list calls it Next sync; the connection page and the Dashboard call it Next scheduled sync. It reads "Disabled" when Enable scheduled sync is off, and "Manual" when the connection is enabled but has no recurring interval, which includes every enabled connection on Free. Otherwise it shows the next due date and time.

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