Scheduled Backups Do Not Run

Hi,

It looks like you site scheduler is not working.

Can you add the following to your wp-config.php

define(‘ALTERNATE_WP_CRON’, true);

Thanks for the suggestion. Have added the line and will monitor the outcome.

So, checked the backups and adding this:

define(‘ALTERNATE_WP_CRON’, true);

to wp_config.php has not resolved the issue. Scheduler is still failing to trigger a backup, but manual trigger and running the cron job manually will work.

Any and all additional suggestions are most welcome…

Can you install the free plugin WPCrontrol and take a screenshot of your CronEvents?

It does not need to be of all of them, just the top few and they do not have to be UpdraftPlus related.

This screenshot is from Cron Manager and filtered for Updraft:

Hi Simon,

Thank you for the screenshot. It shows there is no current entry for file backups.
Could you go to your settings and make a make a small change then reverse it.

This will give you the option to save the settings again, click the Save Changes.
You should then check the Cron Manager events to confirm the entry is there.

Once we’ve confirmed a cron entry exists we can see if the backup runs normally.
If there are still issues we will need the log file which we can examine for errors.

Best regards,

Nick

We host online learning. The courses and their content (files) are fairly static and are backed up manually. The database is far more dynamic, with student progress being tracked (among other things).

I have reverted DB backup to manual and then reinstated hourly backups:

Hi Simon,

Thank you for the screenshot. It still shows the database cron event as hourly.
There is also no event showing for your file backups, there should be an entry.

The image shows the cron entry which should be present for your file backup.
When you make changes to settings please check the browser console for errors.

It seems like the changes being made are not being saved to the cron scheduler.

Best regards,

Nick

Cron entries before changing schedule to manual:

Cron entries after setting database backup to manual:

And finally the cron entries after scheduling database and files to run every 2 hours and 1 hour:

So it all looks fine…except none of them execute.

Hi Simon,

Thank you for the screenshots. I expect you already looked for this line in your wp-config.php file.
define(‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true);

If it does exist there, please change the true value to false without using quote marks around false.
It may be the hosting provider has disabled Cron, it would be good to check with them to confirm.

Best regards,

Nick

DISABLE_WP_CRON is not present in any config file.

The host has confirmed Cron has not been disabled.

So everything says it should work. Except it doesn’t. Was working normally until last plugin update was applied.

Any and all suggestions are most welcome.

Hi Simon,

Thank you for confirming this. I need to check with the developers for any similar reports.
The timing of the update and the problems does suggest the update may be the cause…

One thing you could do as a test in between is to set up an external cron call to the site.
I use the free service here: https://cron-job.org/en/

You could set up a 1 minute cron job using this url example:
https://yourdomain.here/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron

This may help trigger the cron scheduler to run the backups while we investigate further.

Best regards,

Nick

Quick update – Learndash have acknowledged this issue as a bug scheduled for fix in next release.

Thanks for your assistance with this – much appreciated.

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 6 days ago by simonapbrown.

Hi Simon,

Thank you for letting us know about this, it’s very helpful to be aware of such issues.
My apologies, I really should have asked you about a plugin or theme conflict before.

It’s harder providing support here as we’re more limited as to what we can see or do.
All the same, unless otherwise indicated, a plugin/theme conflict test is a good start.

Best regards,

Nick

I marked this as resolved…but that is not the case. The Learndash plugin conflict was a red herring and not the root cause.

Have applied the latest update to Updraft but the issue remains. Scheduled backups are appearing as cron jobs, but do not execute.

Any and all suggestions to resolve this would be most welcome.