2 June 2022
How to Resolve the Missed Schedule Post Error in WordPress
Do you want to resolve the missed schedule post error in WordPress?
WordPress has a built-in feature that allows users to schedule posts to be published at a later date. However, sometimes these scheduled posts don’t get published at all.
In this post, we’ll show you how to resolve the missed schedule post error in WordPress.
What Causes the Missed Schedule Post Error?
WordPress may miss scheduled posts due to a problem with your WordPress hosting environment or plugin conflict.
When you schedule a WordPress post to be published later, WordPress usually uses a mechanism known as Cron to ensure that your post is published on time.
If your WordPress hosting server or a plugin interferes with the cron jobs, WordPress will miss scheduled tasks like publishing scheduled posts.
Your other cron jobs, such as checking for updates or deleting auto-saved drafts, may still run occasionally. This is because if the publishing time is missed, WordPress will not republish the blog post at a later date.
That being said, let’s look at how to resolve the missed schedule post error in WordPress.
How to Resolve WordPress Missed Schedule Post Error
It’s pretty easy to fix the WordPress missed schedule post error and ensure that your posts are published on the scheduled date and time.
Below are three methods you can use to fix it.
Method 1: Check Your wp-config.php File
We know that WP-Cron handles the cron job. If WordPress isn’t publishing your scheduled posts, it’s a good idea to see if WP-Cron is enabled or not.
So, we need to check the wp-config.php file in our first method.
Before you start editing or even open the wp-config.php file, we strongly advise that you back up your website first.
There are so many backup plugins available, but the UpdraftPlus plugin allows you to upload your work to different cloud storage sites.
Once you’ve got a recent site backup, you can start editing your wp-config.php file.
To start, first, you need to edit the wp-config.php file on your WordPress site. It’s in the root folder of your WordPress site, and you’ll need to use FTP software or your web hosting control panel’s file manager to access it.
Now, open the wp-config.php file and search for the following phrase – DISABLE_WP_CRON.
It looks something like this:
define ('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);
If the line of code is present, you need to enable WP-Cron. To enable it, remove the line of code.
Remember to save your changes after you’re finished. That should solve the problem.
Of course, if the line of code is missing, we’ll have to move on to the next methods.
Method 2: Disable the Default WP-Cron and Enable an Alternative
When the default WP-Cron fails to run, you tell WordPress to disable the default option and enable an alternative one.
This method is really effective, especially when there is a conflict between the server settings and WP-Cron.
We will have to edit the same wp-config.php file again to disable the default WP-Cron and enable an alternate one.
Go and open the wp-config.php file and paste the following lines of code just before the line ‘/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */’.
define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);
define('ALTERNATE_WP_CRON', true);
This should fix your WordPress missed schedule post error.
Method 3: Using a Plugin
Using the WordPress plugins listed below is probably the easiest way to fix the missed schedule error.
1. Schedule Post Trigger
Scheduled Post Trigger is a useful WordPress plugin that publishes the post when your site is visited by anyone, regardless of the time. It runs a script to examine if there are any failed tasks to be published and does it immediately.
Go ahead and install and activate the Scheduled Post Trigger WordPress plugin. For more in detail, see our guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.
Once activated, you are done! There is no need to configure the plugin. The plugin handles all of your missed scheduled posts.
2. WP Scheduled Post
WP Scheduled Post is another plugin you may use to take care of your missed scheduled post.
Aside from the missed scheduled post error, you can use a visual calendar to manage your content and automatically share your posts on social media.
To use this plugin, all you have to do is install and activate it. And that’s it!
When the plugin is activated, it takes care of all missed scheduled posts and publishes them.
3. WP Missed Schedule
WP Missed Schedule is a great plugin that scans your website for any unpublished scheduled posts. It automatically checks and publishes missed posts every 15 minutes — it is not dependent on traffic or any other trigger to perform.
However, WP Missed Schedule is no longer available in the WordPress plugin directory. You have to manually download the plugin from GitHub and upload it to your site.
Go to the Github plugin repository and download the zip file.
Now, login to your WordPress dashboard and manually upload the plugin. After upload, click to install and activate it.
And that’s it! You don’t need to move your finger to ensure that no more missed scheduled posts due to failed cron jobs.
4. Missed Scheduled Posts Publisher
This plugin checks your website every 15 minutes to determine if a scheduled WordPress post has been missed.
If it discovers any missed schedule items, it updates the status from scheduled to published.
It works with posts, pages, products, and any other custom post types on your WordPress site.
To use this plugin, simply install and activate it. And that’s it!
The plugin works right away, and there are no settings for you to configure.
Troubleshooting Missed Scheduled Posts Error in WordPress
1. Check Your WordPress Timezone Settings
One of the first steps you should do after installing WordPress is to set your timezone. However, some users overlook this, and their WordPress timezone differs from the timezone in which they want to publish and manage their website.
Simply navigate to the Settings » General page and scroll down to the Timezone option. From here, choose your timezone or the timezone for your WordPress website.
Once done, save your settings by clicking the Save Changes button.
2. Clear WordPress Cache
If your WordPress posts continue missing schedule, it is most likely due to a poorly configured caching plugin. Try clear the WordPress cache and ensure that your WordPress caching plugin is properly configured to automatically clear the cache at regular intervals.
3. Increase WordPress Memory Limit
Your WordPress website may be facing a memory limit problem. You can fix this by allowing WordPress to use additional server memory, which will improve the performance of WordPress.
Go and open the wp-config.php file and paste the following lines of code just before the line ‘/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */’.
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '500M');
For more in detail, see our post on how to increase the memory limit in WordPress.
Conclusion
The WordPress post scheduling option is a huge asset for most bloggers.
With this, you can continue publishing excellent content to engage with your audience even when you are away on vacation. However, many WordPress users who rely on this feature report that WordPress does not publish their posts.
If you’ve been getting WordPress missed schedule post error notifications, I hope this article has helped you. After going over the methods, you should no longer be worried about missing your scheduled WordPress posts.
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