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Your LimeSurvey version: LimeSurvey Cloud Version 6.16.12
Own server or LimeSurvey hosting: LimeSurvey hosting
Survey theme/template: Fruity_twentythree
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If I activate a survey today, with a publication start date in the future, can I schedule the initial notification to all the participants to be e-mailed when the survey goes live? Or do I need to return after the start date & time and initiate the sending of e-mail invites then?

Hi,
not directly built-in.So you have several other options:
1. You send the invitations on the start date (not a big thing)
2. You send the invitations now, but in the invitation you mention that the respondent can't start before xx.xx.xxxx
3. You use the method  "invite_participants" of the LimeSurvey API
[url] api.limesurvey.org/classes/remotecontrol..._invite_participants [/url]
Then you start your script with a cron job.

Joffm