# Synchronous and Asynchronous Actions

The actions that you send to Media Server can be synchronous or asynchronous.

Media Server does not respond to a synchronous action until it has completed the request. The result of the action is usually in the response to the request.

Media Server responds to an asynchronous action immediately. This means that you do not have to wait for a response if the action takes a long time. The response to an asynchronous action includes only a token. You can use this token to determine the status of the task through the `QueueInfo` action at a later time. An asynchronous request is added to a queue (each action has its own queue) and if the server is under load it is held in the queue until Media Server is ready to process it. The action queues are stored in a database, so requests are not lost if there is an interruption in service. You can also set priorities for asynchronous requests, so that the most important are processed first.

As a result, actions that complete quickly usually run synchronously. For example, `action=getstatus` is a synchronous action. Actions that can take a significant time to complete are usually asynchronous. These actions are asynchronous because otherwise requests might time out before Media Server is able to process them.

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