Why is my "limit exceeded" for some of my Google Apps scripts that are using time-based triggers?

Question

I seem to be running up against some kind of unspecified limit with my G Suite account while using Google Apps scripts, but I'm not sure what the limit is and/or how I should adjust my workflow.

I have a G Suite Business account.

I have about 45 relatively simple projects in my "G Suite Developer Hub".

Each project has just one little script with a single function, set with a time-based trigger to run daily between 2:00 am and 3:00 am.

Each project exists just to move files from one folder to another, once a day. Each project exists for a different pair of folders.

Here's the template for the one little file in each project, named Code.gs.

var source_folder = DriveApp.getFolderById("xxxxxxxxsourceFolderIDxxxxxxxx")

var dest_folder = DriveApp.getFolderById("xxxxxxxxdestinationFolderIDxxxxxxxx")

function moveFiles() {

  var files = source_folder.getFiles();

  while (files.hasNext()) {

    var file = files.next();
    dest_folder.addFile(file);
    source_folder.removeFile(file);

  }
}

Most of the triggers seem to work just fine, but I was recently notified of trigger failures for two of them:

Start | Function | Error Message | Trigger | End
6/5/19 2:43 AM | moveFiles | Limit Exceeded: Drive. (line 13, file "Code") | time-based | 6/5/19 2:43 AM

Line 13 is just: source_folder.removeFile(file);

Why is this happening, and how can I make sure that I don't suffer this limitation?

I guess, each file-operation is a http-request against the drive-api. Then you should look at the drive-api. — Nikolaus
Have you already checked out developers.google.com/apps-script/quotas and developers.google.com/drive? — Rubén
@Rubén Yes, but I don't understand what limit I might be up against. I'd just be shooting in the dark. — user260467

Rubén Rubén · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-05T17:31:31

It's very likely that your 45 triggers are doing too many operations for a time period. There are many alternatives,

Rather than setting all the triggers to run at the same time, distribute them some way, let say set 9 triggers to run at 11 pm, 9 triggers at 12 am, etc.
Rather than using 1 account to set all the triggers, use several accounts.
Rather than having 45 scripts create one "master" script. Maybe you should add a Utilities.sleep(milliseconds) at each folder/file iteration. This is some sort of fine tuning that will depend on how many files are being moved and how you design your master script.

Why is my "limit exceeded" for some of my Google Apps scripts that are using time-based triggers?

1 Answers