---
title: "Classify downtime automatically"
description: "Four organization-wide rules put a reason code on the stops operators should not have to classify by hand: short downtimes, the start of a shift, the end of a shift, and a machine down for an entire shift. Scheduled break windows add a reason for lunch and breaks. Which rule to turn on first, and which to leave off until the shift schedule is trusted."
category: "Track and classify downtime"
source_url: "https://www.iotflows.com/docs/monitoring/auto-downtime-rules/"
---
# Classify downtime automatically

Rules that put a reason on the stops operators should not have to.

*Auto-classification* is a rule that assigns a downtime category to a stop without anyone opening the classify modal. Four rules cover the stops every plant sees: short pauses, the edges of a shift, a shift with no production at all, and scheduled breaks. Each rule applies to every machine in the organization, and each carries its own **Enabled** or **Disabled** state.

**Prerequisites.** Organization Owner or Organization Administrator, see [Roles and permissions](/docs/admin/roles-reference/). A shift schedule, see [Shifts and timezone](/docs/admin/shifts-and-timezone/): three of the four rules and every break window are measured against it. A category for each rule to assign, see [Manage downtime categories](/docs/monitoring/downtime-categories/).

## What the rules do
The rules live under **Auto-Downtime Classifications**, at the bottom of Organization Settings.

1. Click the gear icon at the top right of the header, between the feedback icon and your profile picture. It opens Organization Settings at `/settings/organization`, on the **Settings** tab.
2. Scroll past the organization details and the device assignment block. **Auto-Downtime Classifications** is the last panel on the page.

The panel lists each rule with its state and the category it assigns. Click **Edit** to change either, and **Close** when you are done. Every change saves as you make it, so there is no **Save** button.

| Rule | Triggers when | Assigns | Configurable values |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Short Downtimes** | A machine is down for less than the machine's threshold, 5 minutes by default | The category you pick, or converts the stop to uptime | Enabled, category. The threshold and the convert-to-uptime choice are set per machine |
| **Start of Shift** | A machine is down as a scheduled shift begins | The category you pick | Enabled, category |
| **End of Shift** | A machine is down as a scheduled shift ends | The category you pick | Enabled, category |
| **Entire Shift** | A machine is down for the whole of a scheduled shift | The category you pick | Enabled, category |
| **Breaks** | A machine is down inside a break window during a scheduled shift | The category on that window | One or more windows, each with a start, an end, a category, and its own enabled flag |

Rules apply to stops as they are recorded from the moment you enable them. To put a reason on stops that already sit in the backlog, use [Bulk classify](/docs/monitoring/classify-downtime/#bulk).

![The Auto-Downtime Classifications panel on the organization settings page, with an Edit button in its header. Four rows read Short Downtimes, Start of Shift, End of Shift and Entire Shift. Short Downtimes and Start of Shift show Enabled in green, End of Shift and Entire Shift show Disabled in gray, and each row ends with the category it assigns in italic blue. A fifth row, Breaks, carries a plus button and lists two windows, one for Lunch Break and one for No job. Numbered callouts 1 to 4 mark the four rule rows](/images/monitoring/mon-auto-01.webp)

*The four automatic classification rules and their current state.*

## Short downtimes
A *short downtime* is a stop under a cutoff you set per machine. Tool changes, part loading and indexing all stop a machine for a minute or two without being downtime anybody wants to chase.

This rule has two halves in two places. The organization rule turns it on and names the category it assigns. The cutoff, and whether the stop is classified or converted to uptime instead, are machine settings on the calibration panel, see [Handle short stops](/docs/hardware/calibrate-senseai/#short-stops) for SenseAi and [Classify short stops automatically](/docs/hardware/calibrate-beamtracker/#auto-classify) for BeamTracker.

1. Click **Edit** on the **Auto-Downtime Classifications** panel.
2. Turn on the **Short Downtimes** switch. An **Enabled** toast confirms it.
3. Click the category chip and pick the reason to assign, for example `Short Downtime`. A **Downtime Category Updated** toast confirms it.

A machine whose calibration has **Treat short downtimes as uptime** switched on ignores the category: its short stops become uptime and never reach the classify backlog.

**Turn on short downtimes first.** It removes the majority of a plant's unclassified rows, and it is the rule least likely to hide something you needed to see.

![The Short Downtimes row of the panel in Edit mode. A small switch is on, followed by the text If machines are down for less than the specified duration (default 5 minutes), auto classify downtimes as, a category chip reading Short Downtimes, highlighted with a violet box, and the words or convert them to uptime based machine settings](/images/monitoring/mon-auto-02.webp)

*The short-downtime rule. Turn this one on first.*

## Start of shift
Machines rarely start cutting the minute a shift begins. Warm-up, the morning meeting and the first setup all read as downtime on the status bar.

Turn on **Start of Shift** and pick the category to assign, for example `Shift start`. The rule reads the shift boundary from your schedule, so a stop that runs across the start of a shift is classified from the moment the shift begins.

## End of shift
The mirror of the rule above. Cleanup, the last part off the machine and the walk to the clock all read as downtime before the shift ends.

Turn on **End of Shift** and pick the category to assign, for example `Shift end`. Together, the two shift-edge rules leave only the stops in the middle of a shift for operators to explain.

## Entire shift
A machine that never runs during a scheduled shift, because it had no job, no operator or a fault carried over from the day before, produces one stop the length of the shift.

Turn on **Entire Shift** and pick the category to assign, for example `No job scheduled`. The rule matches a stop only when the machine is down for the whole shift, so a machine that runs for one cycle is left for an operator.

**Leave Entire Shift off until you trust your shift schedule.** If the schedule says a shift ran when the plant was closed, every machine reads as down for the whole of it, and this rule silently classifies a shift of real downtime under whatever category you chose. Turn it on once the shifts on [Shifts and timezone](/docs/admin/shifts-and-timezone/) match the calendar on the floor.

![The Entire Shift row of the panel. The state reads Disabled in gray, followed by the text If machines are down for the entire duration of a shift, auto classify the downtime as, and the category Entire Shift Down in italic blue](/images/monitoring/mon-auto-03.webp)

*The entire-shift rule, left off until the shift schedule is trusted.*

## Scheduled breaks
A *break window* is a start and end time inside which any stop during a scheduled shift is classified with the category you attach. Lunch is the usual one. A plant with two lunch waves adds two windows.

1. Click **Edit** on the panel, then the **+** beside **Breaks**.
2. In **Add Downtime Break**, set the start hour, minute and AM or PM, then the end.
3. Click the category chip and pick the reason, for example `Lunch break`.
4. Click **Add Break**. A **Downtime Break Added** toast confirms it, and the window appears enabled.

Each window carries its own switch. Turn one off to keep it for later without deleting it. Changing a time saves on the spot with a **Start Time Updated** or **End Time Updated** toast. The trash icon deletes the window immediately, with no confirmation, and a **Downtime Break Deleted** toast follows.

### Break window fields
| Field | Values | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Start time | Hour 01 to 12, minute 00 to 59, AM or PM | Stored to the minute. Read against the organization timezone |
| End time | Hour 01 to 12, minute 00 to 59, AM or PM | Same |
| Category | Any downtime category | Picked from the same list operators use |
| Enabled | On or off | On when the window is created |

A window only fires during a scheduled shift. A stop at 12:15 on a day with no shift is not classified, so a break window never turns weekend silence into `Lunch break`.

![The two break windows of the panel in Edit mode. Each has a switch, the text During scheduled shifts, if machines are down, between, hour, minute and AM or PM selectors for the start and end, the words classify downtimes as, a category chip, and a trash icon. The first window runs 12:00 AM to 12:30 AM with its switch on and the category Lunch Break. The second runs 02:02 PM to 02:30 PM with its switch on and the category No job. Callout 1 marks the first window's time selectors and callout 2 its switch](/images/monitoring/mon-auto-04.webp)

*Scheduled break windows. Each carries its own enabled flag.*

## Turn a rule off
1. Click **Edit** on the **Auto-Downtime Classifications** panel.
2. Turn off the rule's switch. A **Disabled** toast confirms it.
3. Click **Close**.

The rule stops assigning its category to new stops. Turning a rule off does not remove the category it assigns from the list, and it does not touch a break window: those have their own switches under [Scheduled breaks](#breaks).

## What the rules do not do
- They do not reclassify a stop an operator already put a reason on. A rule fills empty slots.
- They do not touch a stop longer than the short cutoff that sits inside a shift. Those wait for an operator, see [Classify a downtime event](/docs/monitoring/classify-downtime/).
- They do not set the short-downtime cutoff. That is a machine setting on the calibration panel, and it defaults to 5 minutes.
- They do not change the numbers. A classified stop is still downtime in [Uptime](/docs/monitoring/metrics-reference/#uptime) unless the machine converts short stops to uptime.

> **Info:**
> **Rules appear to do nothing?** Three of the four rules and every break window are measured against the shift schedule. If a shift-edge stop stays unclassified, or a break window never fires, the organization timezone or the shift times are wrong. Check both on [Shifts and timezone](/docs/admin/shifts-and-timezone/) before touching the rules.

## See also
- [Shifts and timezone](/docs/admin/shifts-and-timezone/)
- [Manage downtime categories](/docs/monitoring/downtime-categories/)
- [Classify a downtime event](/docs/monitoring/classify-downtime/)
- [Troubleshoot monitoring](/docs/monitoring/troubleshoot-monitoring/)