Fix the WordPress ‘Missed Schedule’ Error
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Many people have noticed that with some of the newer versions of WordPress the scheduled posts feature has not been working. Rather than publishing the scheduled post on time it simply displays the post in the backend with the message “Missed Schedule.” If this is happening to you then I’ve got a very simple solution for you.
WordPress 2.9 has more features and as such it carries a heavier load on servers. As a heavier program, it sometimes times out before accomplishing the actual task of publishing your post.
Some systems would start the publish process and then not respond in the 1/100th of a second that WordPress allows it to wait before it would timout. By changing the timeout time to 1 second or even longer people have been able to fix it.
To fix the issue simply locate the WordPress file named cron.php and locate the line of code that should be at or around line 232. Look below to see the their code compared to our modified code. We’re simply allowing a full second for the process to begin before timing out the publish feature.
230.
231. $cron_url = get_option( 'siteurl' ) . '/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron';
232. wp_remote_post( $cron_url, array('timeout' => 0.01, 'blocking' => false, 'sslverify' => apply_filters('https_local_ssl_verify', true)) );
wp_remote_post( $cron_url, array('timeout' => 1, 'blocking' => false, 'sslverify' => apply_filters('https_local_ssl_verify', true)) );
233. }
234.
235. /**
I made that change and it has worked great for me. I’ve had no issues.
And remember to always be sure to backup both your database and your files before updating WordPress to the newer versions.
Nicholas Cardot
Nick uses his blog Site Sketch 101 to express his passion for helping bloggers and webmasters connect with real people through brilliant designs, unique content, and genuine creativity. Nicholas Cardot has 200 post(s) at Site Sketch 101
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Eric B. said:
That looks like it could work. I’m just going to try out WordPress 2.9.1 RC1 and see how that goes, first.
I think the true problem wasn’t really the timeout for the cron job, but something to do with cURL screwing up, with an effect on the cron jobs.
But this isn’t really a “fix” but more of a workaround. But if it works, then that’s fine. It’s great that you found that.
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Eric B. said:
I can confirm that this works for me. Thanks for sharing this
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Eric B. » You’re welcome. I’m glad that it’s useful for you.
Keith said:
I upgraded a couple of weeks ago and it erased my database, I had to start from scratch. Luckily I had just uploaded my design and installed WP and about 10 plugins, so I only lost a couple hours of work (reminded me to go backup my other sites!) and I haven’t messed with it since due to holiday travel schedule and other things I am working on, I decided to wait a little bit before trying to figure out what the problem was.
Glad it worked for you…
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Keith » I’ve been hearing that a lot of people had a lot of big issues with this one. I feel bad to hear that. Always be sure to backup your site before upgrading. It can save a lot of hassle.
Shurandy Thode said:
Thanks for sharing works fine here!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Shurandy Thode » I’m glad to hear it. You’re welcome.
Aminul Islam Sajib said:
I have not been using the scheduled post feature in my wordpress, so I haven’t experienced any problem so far. However, if the problem exists, it’s really bad. Because post schedule is one of the best features of wordpress and other engines such as blogger (though I don’t like that at all).
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Aminul Islam Sajib » It really is an amazing feature especially for those who are planning ahead with their articles.
Deepika said:
Me too faced this situation. I scheduled one of my post on Jan 1st.. But it was miss scheduled and it automatically posted on Jan 2nd…
There was two similar post in these two days in my blog.. Then i rectified that problem.. Now i came to know the reason for it.. Definitely i will use it.. Hereafter there wont be any miss scheduled post
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Deepika » This fix should be terrific for you then. I think that a lot of people were dealing with this issue. I hope that it helps.
David Hobson said:
Thanks for sharing, this has been annoying me for ages.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
David Hobson » That stinks but this should get you back on the road again.
jess said:
I thought it was me that had this problem, because of that I stop using the scheduled post and did it manually, sure it nice seeing this post.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
jess » This post will definitely fix things up for you.
Don Gilbert said:
I had a site powered by WP-Robot. Nothing was working because I had upgraded it to 2.9. None of my scheduled posts would run and I would have to go in and manually run the add new posts function of WP-Robot. Kind of defeated the “Robot” part.
I’m glad 2.9.1 fixed it though.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Don Gilbert » What exactly does WP-Robot do for you? I’ve seen ads for it but I’m not familiar with its functionality.
Tessa Shepperson said:
Hi, I have had this problem, and very annoying it is too. I would love to fixe it.
I have had a look at my WP files via my ISP file manager. I have found a file called WP-cron.php but it is fairly short and does not seem to have the code you mention. Am I looking in the wrong place?
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Tessa Shepperson » You should be able to find it directly inside of the wp-includes folder. Does that help?
Tessa Shepperson said:
Thanks, I’ve made the change. I’ll test it later, see if it works.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Tessa Shepperson » Great! I hope to hear back from you that everything was successful. Keep in mind that when you upgrade WordPress this change will be overwritten and need to be reapplied.
Tessa Shepperson said:
Sorry, still getting the schedule missed message. Never mind. Hopefully the next Wordpress upgrade will fix this problem.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Tessa Shepperson » You still get it after making that change? Then up the number to something like 20 and give that a try. Or did you try the fix and then upgrade WordPress because the fix will be overwritten once you upgrade.
Mikkel ‘DaneBlogger’ Juhl said:
I have had this problem before, I just reinstalled and then it worked. This just seems to be a lot less work, thanks for sharing!
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