Title: Doesn’t work with server cron Last modified: October 29, 2023 --- # Doesn’t work with server cron * Resolved [lancerlan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lancerlan/) * (@lancerlan) * [2 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/doesnt-work-with-server-cron/) * Hello, * I recently migrated my hosting server to Cloudways and enabled their customized server-based WP Cron, which is set to trigger every 30 minutes. This resulted in the WordPress native Cron being disabled. * However, since the WordPress native cron was disabled, I continue to receive alerts from UpdraftPlus, indicating that backups cannot run and the scheduler in my wp is not working properly: * > **Warning:** WordPress has a number (7) of scheduled tasks which are overdue. > Unless this is a development site, this means that the scheduler in your WordPress > install is not working properly. [Read this page for a guide to possible causes and how to fix it.](https://updraftplus.com/faqs/scheduler-wordpress-installation-working/) > **Warning:** The scheduler is disabled in your WordPress install, via the > DISABLE_WP_CRON setting. No backups can run (even “Backup Now”) unless either > you have set up a facility to call the scheduler manually, or until it is enabled. > [Go here for more information.](https://updraftplus.com/faqs/my-scheduled-backups-and-pressing-backup-now-does-nothing-however-pressing-debug-backup-does-produce-a-backup/#disablewpcron/) * I reached out to Cloudways’ customer service, and they provided a modified cron setup as follows: * > */30 * * * * /home/master/applications/danrxadqnz/public_html && /usr/bin/php/ > usr/local/bin/wp cron event run –due-now * Despite this adjustment, I’m still receiving the same alerts from UpdraftPlus. Cloudways’ customer service suggested that I obtain a cron from the plugin support: * > “If the Updraft tasks or schedules are not running with the default wp-cron, > please be informed that you need to get a cron from your plugin support so > that we can add the cron for it in the cron management section.” * It’s important to note that, despite the alerts, I can see new UpdraftPlus backups in the “existing backups” section every day. The daily backup appears to be functioning normally. * I’m somewhat confused at this point. I’m not sure if the backup is running as it should, or if there’s an issue as indicated in the warnings. If it’s the latter case, could you please advise me on where to obtain the mentioned cron as suggested by Cloudways’ customer service? * Thank you for your assistance. * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fdoesnt-work-with-server-cron%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US) to see the link]_ Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total) * Plugin Support [vupdraft](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vupdraft/) * (@vupdraft) * [2 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/doesnt-work-with-server-cron/#post-17160879) * Hi, * Can you try adding the following to your wp-config.php * define(‘ALTERNATE_WP_CRON’, true); * Plugin Author [David Anderson / Team Updraft](https://wordpress.org/support/users/davidanderson/) * (@davidanderson) * [2 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/doesnt-work-with-server-cron/#post-17164351) * The cause is the attempt to service the cron queue only once every 30 minutes. * By default, WordPress simply services the cron queue whenever there is a non- zero number of due jobs in it. Thus, jobs run when expected, and no backlog occurs. * But servicing the queue only once every 30 minutes on a modern WordPress site rarely works, because there are too many jobs in it. If you install a free plugin like [https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-crontrol/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-crontrol/), it will let you see what jobs are there, and how often they wish to be run, which will then reveal why that can’t work (i.e. because there are too many). Consequently, your cron jobs will not run at the expected times, because of the backlog. * The current entry shown above will also never work at all, as it’s missing a ` cd `before `/home/master/applications/danrxadqnz/public_html`. * David * Thread Starter [lancerlan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lancerlan/) * (@lancerlan) * [2 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/doesnt-work-with-server-cron/#post-17164842) * Hey David, thank you for the reply! * I’ve installed the WP Control plugin, which indicates that the most frequent interval required for cron events on my website is every 5 minutes. Does this mean that adjusting the server-based cron to run at a 5-minute frequency will resolve the issue? * To achieve this, should I modify the cron setup they provided to the one below? * > */5 * * * * cd /home/master/applications/danrxadqnz/public_html && /usr/bin/ > php /usr/local/bin/wp cron event run –due-now * In this new entry, I’ve included `cd` before `/home` and changed the number from 30 to 5. I’m not particularly tech-savvy, so I’m unsure about the significance of the “30” in the previous setup, but I assume it represents the schedule for the cron job. Could you please confirm if this new entry would address the problem? Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you. * Plugin Author [David Anderson / Team Updraft](https://wordpress.org/support/users/davidanderson/) * (@davidanderson) * [2 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/doesnt-work-with-server-cron/#post-17166557) * Hi, * The `/30` in the previous line indicated “every 30 minutes”. * If you have jobs that want to run every five minutes, then that means that the most that you can possibly set the interval to and still have things running when they want (give or take 5 minutes) to is every 5 minutes, but that doesn’t mean you’ll still see no backlog – that will depend how many due events coincide, how long they take to run, and if the one single PHP process running each 5 minutes manages to get through them all before reaching its time limit (according to the web host’s configuration) or not. i.e. 5 minutes should be the maximum you go for. * There’s no real reason not to run it every minute, though. If there are no due jobs, then all that the process being run does is note that, and abort. The server load caused by doing that each minute is completely negligible. * David * Thread Starter [lancerlan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lancerlan/) * (@lancerlan) * [2 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/doesnt-work-with-server-cron/#post-17168334) * Hey David, * I appreciate your response. I’ve made the change to the cron entry as follows: * > */1 * * * * cd /home/master/applications/danrxadqnz/public_html && /usr/bin/ > php /usr/local/bin/wp cron event run –due-now * Despite setting the cron to run every minute, I’m still encountering the same warning sometimes, indicating overdue schedules. My question here is, does this minor backlog actually matter, and will it lead to actual issues on the website? If a few minutes of backlog isn’t critical, can I safely ignore this warning? * Thank you. - This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by [lancerlan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lancerlan/). * Plugin Support [vupdraft](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vupdraft/) * (@vupdraft) * [2 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/doesnt-work-with-server-cron/#post-17170802) * Closing the thread as it is a duplicate of: [https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updraftplus-doesnt-work-with-server-cron-job/](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updraftplus-doesnt-work-with-server-cron-job/) * Thread Starter [lancerlan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lancerlan/) * (@lancerlan) * [2 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/doesnt-work-with-server-cron/#post-17176496) * problem resolved. Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total) The topic ‘Doesn’t work with server cron’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/updraftplus/assets/icon-256x256.jpg?rev=1686200) * [UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/updraftplus/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/updraftplus/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/updraftplus/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/updraftplus/reviews/) ## Tags * [cron](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/cron/) * 7 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [lancerlan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lancerlan/) * Last activity: [2 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/doesnt-work-with-server-cron/#post-17176496) * Status: resolved