Since WordPress released version 2.7, I’ve seen many people could not get the scheduling function working properly. You could still schedule a post but the future post simply miss the time when the scheduled time come. What you could see in the Wordpress dashboard is “Missed Schedule”. I know, this is very frustrating.
The Missed Schedule Problem
The way WordPress handles scheduling is that whenever a page is loaded, either from your blog or in your admin control panel, the file wp-cron.php is loaded. At normal, if correctly configured, the server can talk to itself just fine and WordPress scheduling system will works perfectly. It’s only when you start doing strange and weird things like not having DNS setup properly or blocking loopback connections then it will cause you problems. It is possible that certain web hosts are not allowing WordPress cron jobs to run but for many that is not the issue as scheduled posting was working before upgrading to WordPress 2.7.
In WordPress 2.7, the cron job design, which is the core of the scheduling engine, is significantly changed as you can from both wp-cron.php and cron.php in /wp-includes/ folder. In WordPress 2.7 wp-cron.php, there are references to local-time and doing_cron option is set to zero. This is not exist in WordPress version 2.6.5. This might be the cause of the problem as it’s very likely that your web server time is off by a few seconds or minutes from the WordPress official time. And doing_cron argument is set to zero making it absolutely necessary that your web server and WordPress time to match with each other in order for the scheduled post to go through.
Solutioni #1
If you think that your web server settings is the cause of the problem, simply type this URL in your browser http://www.yourblog.com/wp-cron.php (replace yourblog with your actual domain name) to verify. If you see a blank screen, then your web server settings is ok. You can proceed to solution #2. If you see some error pages, then kindly check with your web hosting technical staff and ask for their help.
Solution #2
This is the solution to fix local-time and doing_cron option in wp-cron.php. If your programming is good enough, you are free to change the code and fix the issue yourselves. Remember to backup your WordPress before applying any change in production.
If you’re not familiar with programming, don’t worry, there is a simple solution.
- Download WordPress version 2.6.5 from WordPress repository.
- Extract both
wp-cron.phpandcron.phpfile from version 2.6.5. - Backup your WordPress database.
- Rename both
wp-cron.phpandcron.phpin your web server to other name. - Upload both
wp-cron.phpandcron.phpextracted from version 2.6.5 to your web server via FTP client.
Conclusion
I hope the fix working fine for you. WordPress should really look into this issue seriously and provide a fix or help to resolve the issue faced by many of the bloggers. If WordPress is not able to publish future post at predefined time, it should recheck it periodically for several time, says every 15 minutes, and publish the post as soon as possible.
What are your thoughts? Kindly share it with us at the comment box below.
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this is fantastic post..
i am a big wordpress fan and i am sure this post will help out alot of big fan like me on missed schedule.
thanks for sharing
Not work for me, I do all your solutions suggest, but my wordpress 2.7 still show missed schedule, anyone can help me ?
@lukas,
Which version of WordPress you were using previously? Was it working in previous version?
It’s doesnot work in my blog. I am in tenson. What to do ?
@Hamroblog,
Are you upgrading to WordPress 2.7 recently? Is your previous WordPress working fine?
Re Missed Scheduling problem
Bless you!
I do hope the people who create WordPress will do something to remove this scheduling defect as it causes enormous grief for those of us with a generally adequate but not real in-depth coding ability.
Also thanks for such a wonderfully clear explanation of what to do. The only info missing was where to find cron.php but that didn’t take long.
Keep up the great work.
@John,
Thanks for your great comments. I will take note and improve for my missing info. I believe the scheduling system in WordPress might not be well-tested under different scenarios. That’s why it created so many problems.
As per solution no. 1: please make sure that you set the path to your wp installation, not just the domain. Although this is the domain for most people, some people use the feature of wp that allows you to serve pages from another subdirectory.
if all else failed, this simple plugin will just do the trick, link here: http://blog.5ubliminal.com/posts/missed-schedule-future-posts-scheduled-mias-wordpress-plugin/
This doesn’t work for me nor does the mias-wordpress-plugin, which pushes through everything that’s scheduled even if the time has not passed yet.
Can anyone please advise, Thank you!
This fix does’nt seem to be working for me either. I think the issue might be with my host, since i moved hosts recently.
@Ash,
Then please check with your host first. And please share with us if your host can fix your issue. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing this tricky tip
Many thanks, worked for me, took a long time to find this post. Kudos.
it is still not working:(( so i have to restart the server?? it keeps increasing the time left for the post publish ufff:(((( any ideas out htere please???
thnks
thanks again
Hi, I followed your instructions and the solution didn’t work for me either. Could it be that Wordpress has changed their way of doing things? Check out this post.
This fix also doesn’t work for us. We’re using WP v2.7.1. Would love to hear any other solutions that are working for people. Thanks. –A
I’m a coder but I’m too lazy to fix this, hehe. I’m just not gonna schedule posts until Wordpress comes up with a fix themselves. Thanks for the fix though! The main thing I don’t like about the fix is that I have to replace core files, which will then get replaced when I upgrade again anyways, so once again that just goes back to my laziness and trying to keep things simple
Just so people know – I’m with Hostmonster and all my blogs have this issue in the latest version (even 2.8)
Hi,
This solution not working for my WP 2.8. (previuosly 2.7).
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Same problem here, I upgraded to 2.8.1 and I thought it will solve the problem but still it doesn’t, I’m also under a xeon dedicated server with 8GB Ram, running Linux CentOS.
To be honest I’ve never really noticed a problem with missed scheduled posts but then again I’m never away from the computer so I generally post them straight away. I’ll keep an eye out for this problem though. Thanks for posting
It worked for me. Thanks so much for the explanation. With two weeks of posts lined up I can now enjoy my vacation! Cheers!
I upgraded to 2.8.3 problem still not fixed. Tried the solutions above..
Solution1 – blank page good.
Solution2 – copied the files..
Unfortunately problem not fixed… (but my site was under a password via .htaccess
Removed security.. fixed.. the scheduling problem (but now no security)
Restored wp-cron.php and cron.php to the 2.8.3 files
Tried again works..
So net net.. if you are having the problem could be .htaccess issues.
Thank u Bey Luen For attention My reply
I upgraded to 2.8.4 .Tried the solutions above problem still not fixed. .
In 2.6.5 It’s work fine. when I upgread wp latest verson Problem creat in scheduleing matter .
Plz help me to solve this problem
Just so you all know, I tried this fix (#2) and it worked 100% perfectly! Well done, and thank you very much Bey. I will keep checking back for your wisdom regarding WordPress.
If anyone is at all interested, check out our blog at http://chartpoppers.com and let us know what you think.
Regards!
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Worked fine! thanks!
I haven’t had any issues with WP cron myself, but I’m working on a plugin that will have relatively large distribution, across a number of different servers, and it needs the ability to schedule – I’m definitely nervous about using wp cron because of these types of issues.
Why does wordpress go to all the trouble to make a new http request for these internal cron events? Why go to all the trouble to make a potentially problematic http request, when you’ve already got wordpress loaded (and could just call whatever function is necessary)?
Is it a security issue (making a separate request with admin credentials to get admin functions)? Surely this isn’t the best solution?
If this is not working yet, I have a plugin in order to correct this issue:
http://arielbustillos.com/missed-schedule/
Thank you, I made a plugin inspired on this:
Missed Schedule Plugin
Great post! Fixed my problem using step #1. I got a nasty fatal error, so I reviewed my settings. I just implemented Wordpress for my blog (was on blogger.com, this is *much* better), so I double-checked the settings. Even though a default time-zone was set, I changed it to the correct one for me and that fixed the problem. Thanks again!
Tom
how can i delet miss posts i have 1100+ ? any fast way