What can go wrong when a queue message takes longer to process than its lock or visibility timeout?

Handle message locks and visibility timeouts for long work

Keeps long-running queue work safe when message ownership expires, renewal fails, settlement is uncertain, or another worker receives the same job.

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TL;DR

I compare the message lock or visibility timeout with real processing duration. If work can exceed it, I either renew ownership, split the job into bounded checkpointed steps, or use a durable job record that short messages advance. Renewal can fail and settlement can be lost, so the handler remains idempotent. Once ownership is lost, the worker stops starting new effects and uses durable state to decide whether an in-flight effect can finish safely.

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Message locks, visibility timeout, lock renewal, duplicate processing, long jobs, progress checkpoints, and idempotency.

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Core answer
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Why this question matters
A lock or visibility timeout grants temporary processing ownership, not exactly-once execution. If work outlives that ownership, another worker may receive the message while the first attempt is still running.
I compare the message lock or visibility timeout with real processing duration. If work can exceed it, I either renew ownership, split the job into bounded checkpointed steps, or use a durable job record that short messages advance. Renewal can fail and settlement can be lost, so the handler remains idempotent. Once ownership is lost, the worker stops starting new effects and uses durable state to decide whether an in-flight effect can finish safely.
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Stronger answer
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For a large export, the message creates or advances a job rather than carrying one unbounded execution. Each chunk commits progress under a job version or lease, then the message is completed. Prefetch and concurrency are low enough that workers do not lock messages while they wait in local memory. Automatic renewal has a maximum duration and observes cancellation. External calls use idempotency keys because a lock expiring after provider success can still cause another attempt.

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Details

Treating a message lock as permanent ownership.
Prefetching more slow messages than the worker can finish before expiry.
Letting an expired worker keep committing state without a version or lease check.
Increasing timeout indefinitely instead of checkpointing long work.

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What can go wrong when a queue message takes longer to process than its lock or visibility timeout?

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Tech stacks

Skill areas

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