GitHub Actions scheduled workflow not triggering — no schedule events

[ashish-borchate]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

ARC (Actions Runner Controller)

Discussion Details

Hello GitHub Actions Community,

I need help troubleshooting a scheduled GitHub Actions workflow that is correctly configured and active but is not triggering any scheduled runs.

I have completed several rounds of troubleshooting, including checking the workflow configuration, default branch, repository Actions permissions, and refreshing the workflow registration twice. However, no schedule events are appearing in the Actions run history.

I would appreciate help identifying whether I have overlooked something or whether this could be an issue with GitHub's scheduled workflow system.

1. Repository and workflow details

• Repository: ashish-borchate/koinx-support-ops-backend
• Repository URL: https://github.com/ashish-borchate/koinx-support-ops-backend
• Visibility: Private
• Default branch: main
• Workflow name: Support Analytics scheduled Live sync
• Workflow file: .github/workflows/support-analytics-scheduled-sync.yml
• Workflow ID: 41450965
• Workflow state: active

Workflow URL:
https://github.com/ashish-borchate/koinx-support-ops-backend/actions/workflows/support-analytics-scheduled-sync.yml

2. Expected scheduled behaviour

The workflow contains two scheduled triggers.

Live sync:

*/15 3-15 * * *

Expected execution:

• Every 15 minutes.
• Between 03:00 and 15:59 UTC.
• Equivalent to 08:30 AM to 09:15 PM IST (UTC+5:30).

Historical sync:

30 0 * * *

Expected execution:

• Once daily at 00:30 UTC.
• Equivalent to 06:00 AM IST.

The Live job condition matches the exact cron expression:

github.event.schedule == '*/15 3-15 * * *'

The workflow also supports manual execution through workflow_dispatch.

3. Actual problem

The workflow is active and visible in GitHub Actions, but no scheduled runs are being created.

• Manual workflow dispatch works successfully.
• No runs with event type schedule appear in the Actions history.
• This has continued across multiple scheduled intervals.
• Changing the cron expression and refreshing the workflow registration did not resolve the issue.

This is not a case of a scheduled job starting and failing. The scheduled runs themselves are missing.

4. Examples of missed execution times

On November 11, 2026, the following expected Live sync executions did not appear in the Actions run history:

Expected time (IST)	Expected time (UTC)
05:30 PM	12:00 UTC
05:45 PM	12:15 UTC
06:00 PM	12:30 UTC

There were also multiple earlier missed intervals throughout the afternoon.

These are expected execution times, not failed run timestamps. No corresponding scheduled runs were created.

5. Troubleshooting already completed

I have verified:

1. main is the repository's default branch.
2. The workflow file exists at the correct path on main.
3. The workflow state is active.
4. Both cron expressions are present in the YAML retrieved directly from GitHub.
5. The Live job condition matches its cron expression.
6. GitHub Actions is enabled for the repository.
7. Repository Actions permissions are enabled, with allowed_actions set to all.
8. GitHub CLI authentication is working for ashish-borchate, with repo and workflow scopes.
9. The latest workflow configuration is present on the remote main branch.
10. Run history has been checked across event types, with no scheduled runs found.

6. Registration-refresh attempts

I have already attempted two controlled registration refreshes.

First refresh:

• Commit: 58b6a177a2b07d0b9aaaa117b80aa4883287abec
• Workflow-only registration refresh.
• Successfully pushed to main.

Second refresh:

• Commit: b9781e4c7fa6069aae5d9ee0eac4f68f4c1ff11e
• Message: chore: re-register Live schedule with equivalent */15 cron
• Changed the Live cron expression and its corresponding job condition.
• Successfully pushed to main.

Latest commit:
https://github.com/ashish-borchate/koinx-support-ops-backend/commit/b9781e4c7fa6069aae5d9ee0eac4f68f4c1ff11e

Neither attempt restored scheduled executions.

7. Run-history evidence

The latest read-only GitHub API/CLI audit showed:

• Workflow ID: 41450965
• Workflow state: active
• Workflow updated at: November 11, 2026, 17:54:37 IST
• Latest commit: b9781e4c7fa6069aae5d9ee0eac4f68f4c1ff11e

The only run returned by the latest run-history query was:

• Run ID: 4300004881
• Event: workflow_dispatch
• Status: completed
• Conclusion: success
• Created at: November 11, 2026, 10:01:15 UTC (03:31:15 PM IST)

No schedule runs were returned.

8. Scheduled workflow actor question

I understand that GitHub scheduled workflows can stop running if their associated actor account is suspended, deleted, or deprovisioned, even when the workflow remains enabled.

The latest cron-changing commit was authored and committed by ashish-borchate, who has administrator access to the repository.

Could someone clarify:

1. How can I verify which account is associated with the scheduled workflow actor?
2. Could an actor association issue prevent scheduled runs even when the workflow is active?
3. Does a cron-changing commit by an active repository administrator refresh this association?
4. Is there any other documented reason why no schedule events would be created?

9. What I am trying to establish

I would particularly appreciate help determining:

• Whether the workflow configuration is valid.
• Whether there is any overlooked repository-side setting that could prevent scheduled execution.
• Whether GitHub's scheduler could be failing to register or generate the expected events.
• What additional diagnostic steps are available when no scheduled run appears in the Actions history.

This workflow powers an operational Support Analytics dashboard that needs automatic Freshdesk ticket synchronization every 15 minutes.

Manual synchronization works, but it is not a suitable permanent replacement.

I have already made multiple controlled configuration and registration-refresh attempts, so I would prefer to avoid further speculative cron or YAML changes.

Thank you for your help.

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[atokim4]

Your config looks fine to me, and I don't think another cron or YAML change will help. You're also not the only one. #212637 (private test repo, */5 * * * * and a timezone cron, Nov 10) and #212688 (private repo, 0 7 * * 1-5, nothing on Nov 9 and 10) describe the same thing. In both, the schedule runs never get created, while push and workflow_dispatch work.

I checked the public side to compare. Public repos are getting schedule runs today: upptime/upptime has event=schedule runs at 05:30, 07:37, 09:14 and 10:36 UTC on Nov 11. So the scheduler is up in general, and the three reports that match are all private repos. I can't see inside your private repo, so I can't prove the cause. But it looks like it's on GitHub's side, and it's worth putting that pattern and the two other thread numbers in a support ticket.

On your actor questions: the docs tie a schedule to the user who last changed the cron syntax. A cron-changing commit by an active admin is the documented way to reactivate a schedule that was disabled, and you already did that with b9781e4. There's no public endpoint that shows whether the scheduler has registered a cron, so you can't verify more from the API.

If you need the 15 minute sync while you wait, you can trigger it from outside the scheduler. One catch with your current file: a workflow_dispatch run has no github.event.schedule, so your Live job would just be skipped. Give it an input:

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '*/15 3-15 * * *'
    - cron: '30 0 * * *'
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      mode:
        type: choice
        options: [live, historical]
        default: live
jobs:
  live:
    if: github.event.schedule == '*/15 3-15 * * *' || inputs.mode == 'live'

(Same idea for the historical job with '30 0 * * *' || inputs.mode == 'historical'.) Then anything that runs on a timer can call:

gh workflow run support-analytics-scheduled-sync.yml -R ashish-borchate/koinx-support-ops-backend -f mode=live

using a fine-grained token that only has Actions: write on that one repo. It can run from a server cron you already have, or from a tiny public repo with its own */15 schedule, since public schedules are firing. Remove it once schedules come back.

Both snippets pass actionlint. I used AI tools to help put this together, but I checked the run data and the YAML myself.

[JitendraSuryavanshi]

The configuration and troubleshooting you provided look correct. Because workflow_dispatch works while no schedule events are created, this does not appear to be a YAML, cron, runner, or ARC issue. The scheduler is failing before the workflow is even queued.

The pattern also appears to affect multiple private repositories, while scheduled workflows in public repositories are still running. Your cron-changing commit by an active administrator already performed the documented actor refresh, so additional cron changes are unlikely to help.

flowchart TD
    A[Scheduled workflow] --> B{GitHub creates schedule event}
    B -->|Yes| C[Workflow run appears]
    B -->|No| D[No run or failure is recorded]
    E[workflow_dispatch] --> F[Manual run succeeds]
    D --> G[Likely GitHub-side scheduler or private-repository registration issue]

Loading

I recommend adding discussions #212637 and #212688 to your GitHub Support ticket and asking Support to inspect the scheduler registration for workflow ID 41450965. Include the repository, workflow URL, missed UTC execution times, latest registration-refresh commit, and confirmation that manual dispatch succeeds.

As a temporary workaround, allow manual dispatch to select the job:

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '*/15 3-15 * * *'
    - cron: '30 0 * * *'
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      mode:
        type: choice
        options:
          - live
          - historical
        default: live

jobs:
  live:
    if: github.event.schedule == '*/15 3-15 * * *' || inputs.mode == 'live'

Then trigger it from an external cron:

gh workflow run support-analytics-scheduled-sync.yml \
  -R ashish-borchate/koinx-support-ops-backend \
  -f mode=live

Use a token limited to Actions: write for this repository, and remove the workaround after GitHub restores scheduled events.