Apex Jobs Using Flex Queue Are in Holding State

Understanding Flex Queue Job Statuses

A standard Batch Job that has not yet started will default to a status of Queued. The batch job currently being processed will be in InProgress status. Without Flex Queue, batch jobs are limited to five queued or active jobs simultaneously.

Why Jobs Show as Holding

With Flex Queues, any jobs submitted for execution that are not processed immediately by the system go into Holding status and are placed in the Apex Flex Queue — a separate queue from the standard batch job queue. Up to 100 batch jobs can be in Holding status at one time. When system resources become available, the system picks up jobs from the Apex Flex Queue and moves them to the batch job queue. The status of these moved jobs changes from Holding to Queued. Queued jobs then execute when the system is ready to process new jobs, at which point they transition to InProgress status.

Standard Batch vs. Flex Queue Limits

Without Flex Queue: Batch jobs are limited to 5 queued or active jobs simultaneously. With Flex Queue: Up to 100 additional jobs can be held in Holding status in the Apex Flex Queue, waiting for resources.

Key Note

Since Batch is an asynchronous process, there is no ETA for the time it takes a job to move from Queued state to InProgress state. The timing depends entirely on system resource availability at that moment. Jobs in Holding status are not stuck — they are actively waiting in queue and will be processed when resources are available.