What does the "Automation could not be updated as" error message mean?

Question

I am trying to edit an automation but Support is not letting me save the changes and I receive the error: Automation could not be updated as...

Answer

You are receiving this error message because the changes made to your automation do not have a nullifying condition telling the automation when to stop running. You could fix this one of two ways:

Modify the automation to include a nullifying condition

Automations must contain a condition that is true only once or an action that nullifies at least one of the conditions. The error message, itself, gives you an example of a way you can set up a nullifying condition. See the examples below of nullifying conditions as ways to ensure the automation only runs once. 

Using ticket priority 

If one of your automation's actions is increasing the ticket priority to urgent, a nullifying condition would be to have the automation run on tickets with a high priority. 

• ALL condition: 
  • Ticket: Priority | is | High
• Action:
  • Ticket: Priority | is | Urgent

Using ticket tags 

Another way this can be done is by creating a nullifying condition using tags. If one of your automation's actions is adding a tag to the ticket, a nullifying condition would be to look for any tickets without the presence of that tag. 

• ALL condition: 
  • Ticket tags: | contains none of the following | [tag]
• Action:
  • Ticket: add tags | [tag]

For more information, see the article: Ensuring your automation only runs once.

Create a trigger instead

Oftentimes, this error message appears because you are setting up an automation to take any action that would be better accomplished by a trigger. If the conditions in your automation are not time-based, create a trigger instead. To understand the difference between automation and triggers, see the article: What is the difference between triggers and automations?