WordPress Missed Schedule – How to Fix This Error Permanently
As you already know, WordPress has an amazing feature that allows users to schedule posts for later. However, sometimes the scheduled posts fail to publish on the set date and time.
This error can be discouraging, but fortunately, there are effective solutions to this issue. By following our detailed guide, you can identify the root causes and permanently fix the missed schedule error.
Table of Content
- Why Does WordPress Fail to Publish Scheduled Posts?
- Steps to Troubleshoot WordPress Missed Scheduled Error
- How Can I Solve the WordPress Missed Schedule Error Permanently?
- Final Thoughts
You can also check out our step-by-step video guide on how to fix the missed schedule error.
Why Does WordPress Fail to Publish Scheduled Posts?
You may have heard the term ‘cron,’ also called’schedulers’ in UNIX-based systems. The cron is responsible for scheduling commands to run at a specific time and date without human assistance. The scheduled tasks to be executed are called ‘cron jobs’. For instance, you can set a cron job to handle repetitive tasks like:
- Backing up your files daily.
- Deleting temporary files.
- Monitoring your disk space.
- Maintaining your WP system.
- Checking for software updates daily.
WordPress uses crons to publish scheduled WordPress blog posts. A missed schedule is caused primarily by ‘failed cron jobs’.
The WordPress cron system is a faux cron system. This means WordPress cron jobs do not depend on your server. Instead, they depend on front-end requests. As a result, your scheduled post won’t be published if no one loads your site around the time it was supposed to go live. So if your site doesn’t have a lot of traffic yet, you may experience more missed scheduled posts.
For example, if you set a post to publish at 11:00 p.m. and no one visits your website within that time frame, you will likely get a missed schedule error.
Websites with loads of traffic also have their own scheduling problems of a different nature. Since an event is triggered at every page visit, the interval between cron events may be too small. This may lead to a server overload, which can reduce the page’s speed and cause a missed schedule error.
For example, if you schedule a WordPress post to publish by 11:00 p.m. and thousands of people visit your website around that time, the scheduled post may fail due to server overload.
If you experience missed scheduled post errors, the first step is to check for specific factors. Below are the steps to troubleshoot missed schedule errors.
Steps to Troubleshoot WordPress Missed Scheduled Error
1. Check Your Timezone Settings
Incorrect timezone configuration can cause scheduled posts to be missed. Since WordPress uses the server’s time to publish posts, the posts won’t publish at the scheduled time if there’s a discrepancy between the time on the server and the timezone settings on your website.
To change your timezone, go to Settings>>General from your WordPress dashboard. Scroll down to the “Timezone” section and choose the city closest to your location or select the UTC offset that matches your local time. Then click Save Changes.
2. Clear the WordPress Cache
Clearing the WordPress cache is one important maintenance step that can help fix several problems, including missing scheduled posts. WordPress caching plugins save static versions of your website to improve performance and loading times. However, these cached data can occasionally cause problems with planned tasks when they become outdated or damaged.
It’s important to clear your cache regularly to prevent issues. The process to clear the cache differs depending on the cache plugin you are using.
- If you are using WP Super Cache, navigate to your WordPress dashboard, then go to Settings > WP Super Cache > Delete Cache to clear your cache.
- For W3 Total Cache, go to Performance > Dashboard > Empty All Caches.
- If you are using WP Rocket, go to Settings > WP Rocket > Clear Cache.
Once you clear the cache, you can try scheduling a sample post to see whether it works. You can also set your cache plugins to prevent it from interfering with your scheduled posts. Here are some tips to do that:
- Add wp-cron.php to the excluded list to ensure the cron jobs can run without interference. Most plugins allow you to exclude specific URLs from caching.
- Set a shorter cache expiration time, so the pages are refreshed more often, allowing scheduled posts to publish as intended.
- Regularly clear your cache to ensure that it does not hold outdated content.
3. Increase the WordPress Memory Limit
A low memory limit can affect how your website performs in all activities, including publishing scheduled posts. It even worsens when resource-demanding plugins are active or during heavy traffic.
You can give WordPress extra resources to handle these activities effectively by raising the memory limit. To do this, you must access your wp-config.php file via cPanel or an FTP client.
Note: It is best to back up WordPress before altering your wp-config file. Just to be safe. Here’s our guide on backuping your WP files.
If you are using cPanel, navigate to File Manager>> Public_html folder. Then scroll down to locate the WPconfig.php file. Once you find the file, right-click on it and click on Edit.
Now add the code below before the line that says; ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing.’
define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘500M’);
And that’s it. You have successfully increased your memory limit.
You can try to publish a sample post to see if it works.
If none of these troubleshooting measures work, then it’s time to move on to more permanent methods for fixing WordPress missed schedule errors.
How Can I Solve the WordPress Missed Schedule Error Permanently?
There are four ways to fix a WordPress missed schedule error. If one method doesn’t fix the problem, try the next.
Method 1: Install A Plugin to Fix WordPress Missed Schedule Error
One easy way to fix the WordPress missed schedule error is to use a plugin. There are WordPress plugins out there to prevent missed schedules, like Scheduled Post Trigger and WP Scheduled Post plugins for this illustration.
i. Use Scheduled Post Trigger to fix WordPress Missed Schedule Error
Scheduled Post Trigger has over 70,000 active installs and is compatible with WordPress version 3.0.1 and higher. Once installed, this plugin checks if there are any missed scheduled posts. If it finds any missed posts, it publishes them immediately.
To install the Scheduled Post Trigger plugin, go to Plugins>>Add New from your WordPress dashboard
Type ‘Scheduled Post Trigger’ in the search bar (at the top-right corner of your screen) and click Install Now.
Once the installation is complete, click Activate.
And that’s all! You don’t need to configure the plugin. Once it’s activated, you no longer need to worry about missing scheduled posts.
If you install this plugin and your scheduled posts still go unpublished, check your time settings. Ensure your time zone is set correctly, or set it as I explained earlier. Also, watch out for plugin conflicts. You can do this by turning off your other installed plugins one after the other to identify the conflicting ones.
Ii. Use WP Scheduled Post Plugin to Solve WordPress missed schedule error
WP Scheduled Post is another incredible plugin to help you take care of your missed schedule. This plugin offers you three other functions, which include:
- Managing your content with a visual calendar.
- Creating schedules for your posts.
- Automatically share your WP posts on social media.
It is compatible with WordPress version 4.0 and higher.
To use this plugin, go to Plugins >> Add New from your dashboard. Next, type the name of the plugin, “WP scheduled post,” in the search bar. Once you find it, click ‘install now’ and then activate.
Once you activate the plugin, it will publish any missed scheduled posts on your website. The plugin also allows you to schedule your new posts and view all the posts on a calendar.
That’s all for this method. Plugins for WordPress are very helpful pieces of software. We have compiled a list of the best WordPress plugins every WP site owner must have. You should check it out.
Method 2: Check Your wpconfig.php File
Sometimes, the WP cron may have been disabled, and that could be the reason why WordPress isn’t publishing your scheduled posts. To know if your WP cron is disabled, check your WPconfig.php file.
To locate the WPconfig.php file, log into your cPanel (most hosting providers will give you access to your cPanel). Alternatively, you can access your files using FTP.
Using cPanel, go to File Manager>> Public_html folder. Scroll down and locate the WPconfig.php file.
Right-click on the wp-config.php file and select ‘edit’. Check if the file has this line of code;
define (‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true);
If it does, it means WP cron is disabled on your site. To enable it, simply delete this line and save your changes. And that should fix the issue.
If you do not see the line of code, then cron was enabled, and you should try the next fix.
Method 3: Disable Default WP Cron and Enable Alternate Cron
This method works most of the time, especially if your server settings conflict with your WP crons. All you need to do is disable the default WP cron. And then go ahead and enable an alternative one.
To do this, you have to edit your wpconfig.php file to include two new lines of code. As I stated earlier, you can find the wp-config file by logging into your cPanel or FTP. And then go to File Manager >> Public_html folder.
Once you find it, right-click on the file and select edit. Paste these lines of code at the bottom, just before the line that says “stop editing, happy blogging”:
define(‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true);
define(‘ALTERNATE_WP_CRON’, true);
And that should fix your missing schedule error in WordPress. You should test if this procedure worked by scheduling a post.
Method 4: Replacing WP-Cron with a Real Server-Side Cron Job
This method is a bit more technical than the first three methods. If you are comfortable working with your server, then you should use this method. It’s a permanent way to fix the ‘missed schedule errors’.
Once you complete this process, you’ll be using real crons to trigger WP schedules (instead of faux crons). Here’s how it’s done.
Step 1: Disable WordPress Cron to prevent any conflict.
To do this, log into your cPanel and open the file manager >> public_html folder. Scroll down in search of the wp-config.php file. When found, click ‘edit’. Next, add the following line of code at the bottom of the file and save changes.
define(‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true);
And that’s it. You have successfully disabled the WordPress cron.
Step 2: Implement manual crons
The next step is to implement manual crons through your server again. To do this log in to your cPanel and scroll to the advanced section. You’ll sthis,ee ‘Cron Jobs’. Click on it.
To add a new cron job, scroll to the add new cron job section. First, you need to set how often you want cron events to take place.
To do this, click on the ‘Common Settings’ dropdown and pick an option that suits you.
If you set a 5-minute interval, it means your cron will trigger WP cron every 5 minutes. That could be overbearing on your server. As such, it is best to give a wider interval between cron events, like twice per hour, or even once per hour.
Step 3: Input cron command
Next, you need to input the cron command that should be run. You can do this by pasting the following line of code in the input box labeled ‘Command’:
wget -O /dev/null http://yourwebsite.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron
Don’t forget to replace ‘yourwebsite’ in the code with the actual name of your site.
Example: wget -O /dev/null https://fixrunner.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron
Finally, click ‘Add New Cron Job’ to finish the process.
Now WordPress won’t miss any of your scheduled posts since you no longer depend on WP faux crons but on real crons.
Use a third-party Cron Service
If your hosting provider doesn’t offer the option to create custom cron jobs, then you should consider using third-party cron services like EasyCron or FastCron. These third-party services can handle the execution of WordPress cron jobs externally, bypassing server limitations.
To use EasyCrone, you need to first disable the WP Cron System by editing your wp-config.php file and adding the following code to it:
define(‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true);
Once you are done, open your EasyCron dashboard and click on the + Cron Job button.
Input the crone command wget -O /dev/null http://yourwebsite.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron in the “URL to call” field (replace yourwebsite your website).
Choose an appropriate cron job execution frequency. For WordPress post schedules, we recommend setting the cron job to run every 30 minutes or 1 hour.
Complete any other optional settings if necessary.
Click the Create Cron Job button, and you’re done. EasyCron will trigger your WordPress schedule cron job command to ensure your post publishes at the specified time.
Note: Most managed WordPress hosting can help you configure your cron. See a compilation of the best WordPress hosting providers.
One of these methods would likely work for you and resolve your missed scheduled post issue. However, it is still important to manually check your scheduled posts and publish any failed posts. To do this, go to Posts > All Posts in your WordPress dashboard, and filter by Scheduled to see upcoming posts. Then manually publish any posts that have missed their scheduled time.
Final Thoughts
The scheduling posts feature available in WordPress is a relief to most WP bloggers. With it, you can keep engaging your audience even when you are away on a vacation. However, many WP users who rely on this feature complain about WordPress not publishing their posts.
If you have been getting WordPress missed schedule error messages, I hope this article has helped you. Having gone through the methods covered, you should no longer be bothered about missing your scheduled WordPress posts.
Have you ever experienced the WP missed schedule error? Did you solve it some other way? Let us know in the comments below. And if you want to know more about WordPress cron, you should check out this article on how to automate tasks with WordPress cron job.
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