A developer creates a batch Apex job to update a large number of records, and receives reports of the job timing out and not completing. What is the first step towards troubleshooting the issue?

The Asynchronous Apex Jobs page (or Apex Jobs in Setup) provides a centralized location to monitor the status, progress, and error messages for all asynchronous jobs, including Batch Apex, making it the primary and first place to look for information about why a job failed or timed out.

While debug logs are useful, they might not capture the full context of a timeout error across an entire batch job, and checking the job status page first often reveals a more direct cause or high-level error message without needing to sift through extensive logs.

Decreasing the batch size is a potential solution for a timeout, but it's a corrective action, not the *first* troubleshooting step; you need to understand *why* it's timing out before implementing a solution.

Disabling and recreating the job with a smaller number of records is a drastic measure and a potential solution, but it's not the initial troubleshooting step; you should first diagnose the problem before attempting to redesign or re-run the job.