Fix "Exceeded maximum execution time" in Apps Script

Originally written for bulldo.gs — republished here with the canonical link pointing home. I'm running a script that processes a large spreadsheet and it keeps dying with "Exceeded maximum execution time" before it finishes. // Checkpoint-resume pattern for long-running sheet jobs function processInBatches () { var props = PropertiesService . getScriptProperties (); var startRow = parseInt ( props . getProperty ( ' lastRow ' ) || ' 2 ' , 10 ); var sheet = SpreadsheetApp . getActiveSpreadsheet (). getActiveSheet (); var lastDataRow = sheet . getLastRow (); var BATCH = 200 ; var SAFE_MS = 5 * 60 * 1000 ; var started = Date . now (); var endRow = Math . min ( startRow + BATCH - 1 , lastDataRow ); var data = sheet . getRange ( startRow , 1 , endRow - startRow + 1 , 5 ). getValues (); for ( var i = 0 ; i < data . length ; i ++ ) { if ( Date . now () - started > SAFE_MS ) { props . setProperty ( ' lastRow ' , String ( startRow + i )); return ; } // process data[i] here } if ( endRow >= lastDataRow ) { props . deleteProperty ( ' lastRow ' ); deleteTrigger_ (); } else { props . setProperty ( ' lastRow ' , String ( endRow + 1 )); } } The 6-minute wall is per-execution, not per-task Apps Script enforces a hard 6-minute execution time limit per run, regardless of whether you're on a free account or a Workspace account (which bumps the limit to 30 minutes, but the same cliff exists). The error doesn't mean your logic is wrong; it means one continuous call to your function took too long. The fix is to stop thinking of your job as a single execution and start thinking of it as a pipeline of short runs. The first time I hit this, I wasted an afternoon trying to speed up the loop. Marginal gains didn't move the needle because the data volume was the real problem — 4,000 rows at one Sheets API call per row will always breach 6 minutes. The correct frame is: how do I save where I stopped and pick up there next run? Saving and restoring a cursor with PropertiesService PropertiesServic