Easily Modify SCCM Client Policy Polling Interval Time

In this article, I will show you how to modify SCCM client policy polling interval time. We will also look at the steps to manually initiate client policy update.

The client policy polling interval time in SCCM specifies how frequently client computers checks and download new client policy(s).

The Client Policy polling interval schedule settings control how often the SCCM client checks in for policy updates. By default, the client policy polling interval is set to 60 minutes.

You can manage all client settings in the Configuration Manager console from the Client Settings node in the Administration workspace.

The client policy polling interval time in SCCM determines how frequently the following Configuration Manager clients download client policy:

Windows computers (for example, desktops, servers, laptops)
Mobile devices that Configuration Manager enrolls
Mac computers

What is SCCM Client Policy Polling Interval?

The Client Policy polling interval time in SCCM specifies how frequently client computers checks and download new client policy(s). By default, the client policy polling interval is set to 60 minutes.

Default Client Policy Polling Interval Time

What is the best value for SCCM client policy polling interval? The best polling interval value is 60 minutes and that’s configured by default.

When you install Configuration Manager, under the default client settings, the policy polling interval time is set to 60 minutes. However, you can customize policy intervals using the client settings from the SCCM console.

With many clients in the setup, setting a low client policy update polling interval time can have a negative impact on the site performance. In other words, reducing this value causes clients to poll the site more frequently.

Increasing the policy polling interval value causes clients to poll the site less often. Any changes to client policies, including new deployments, take longer for clients to download and process.

The least value that you can set for client policy polling interval is 5 minutes. If you set the Client policy polling interval to 5 minutes, every client device will check the SCCM policies for every 5 minutes of time interval.

Modify SCCM Client Policy Polling Interval Time

Here are the steps to modify SCCM client policy polling interval time:

Launch the SCCM console.
Navigate to Administration\Overview\Client Settings.
Right-click Default Client Settings and select Properties.
Select Client Policy and under device settings, change the client policy polling interval (minutes) from 60 to custom time.

Manually Initiate Client Policy Update

In some organizations, the client policy update schedule is set to more than 60 minutes. In such cases, any changes to client policies, including new deployments, take longer for clients to download and process.

Sometimes when you deploy an application, the application doesn’t appear in Software Center on the client machine. The user complains that software isn’t available in the Software Center.

In such cases, you can ask the user to manually initiate the client update policy. This will download the client policy immediately and new deployments will appear in Software Center.

There are two methods that you can use to initiate machine policy immediately on Windows PCs. This applies to both Windows 10 and Windows 11 PC.

The good news is you can manually initiate client policy update from the client computer. This can be done from Configuration Manager client actions.

An alternate method to initiate client actions is from the SCCM admin console via the notification channel. You can manually initiate client policy update from the ConfigMgr console.

On the client computer, launch the Configuration Manager Properties. You can run the shortcut command control smscfgrc to launch the SCCM properties.

On the Configuration Manager Properties window, select the Actions tab. From the list of Actions, select Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle and click Run Now. With this step, you manually initiate SCCM client policy update.