What happens to ongoing requests if I edit their linked approval configuration?

You cannot edit an approval configuration linked to active requests at all — the system blocks this and displays the message: “Cannot edit a configuration with active requests,” along with direct links to each linked request for you to review first.

If you want to stop using the configuration without affecting ongoing requests, you can deactivate it instead of editing it — deactivation doesn’t stop active requests, it only prevents the configuration from being used for new requests going forward.