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How to Check if Cron Jobs are Working on Your Site ​

Our plugins, Feedzy and Visualizer, rely on WP-Cron to import posts and update charts according to scheduled cron jobs. If imports or updates are not working as expected, there may be an issue with cron jobs on your WordPress site.

This guide will help you check whether your site's cron jobs are running correctly.

Understanding WP-Cron ​

WordPress uses WP-Cron to handle scheduled tasks such as publishing scheduled posts, checking for updates, and other time-based activities. WP-Cron is triggered when someone visits your site. If your site has low traffic or issues with scheduled tasks, cron jobs may not run properly.

Check WP-Cron Status ​

You can use a plugin like WP Crontrol to check and manage cron jobs.

  1. Install & activate the WP Crontrol plugin from the WordPress repository.
  2. Go to Tools → Cron Events.
  3. Look for cron events related to Feedzy (they usually start with feedzy_). If you are using the Visualizer plugin, check visualizer_schedule_import and visualizer_schedule_refresh_db
  4. Check the Next Run column:
    • If it shows a future time, cron is scheduled properly.
    • If it shows a past time or says "Now", cron may not be working correctly.

Manually Trigger WP-Cron ​

If you suspect the cron is not running, try manually triggering it.

1. Using WP Crontrol ​

  1. Find the cron job (e.g: feedzy_cron or visualizer_schedule_import) in WP Crontrol.
  2. Click Run Now to manually execute the import.

2. Using the WP-Cron URL ​

  1. Open a new browser tab.
  2. Visit:https://yourwebsite.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron
  3. If cron is working, you should see a blank page or no error message.

Common Issues and Troubleshooting ​

  • Cache Plugins: Sometimes, cache plugins can interfere with WP-Cron. Please try disabling your cache plugin temporarily to see if it resolves the issue.
  • Hosting Environment: Some hosting providers disable WP-Cron by default and recommend setting up a real cron job. Check with your hosting provider if other solutions are not working.
  • Low Traffic: WP-Cron relies on site traffic to trigger. If your site has low traffic, consider setting up a real cron job on your server.

Cron is scheduled, but imports are delayed ​

If your Feedzy events exist and show a valid Next Run time, WP-Cron is likely working. In this case, late imports are often caused by a congested background task queue, not by missing cron events.

Before changing cron intervals, confirm your import schedule is correct in Feedzy. If you need to change or replace the current schedule, follow How to Set New Schedule for Import Cron Jobs in Feedzy?.

Check for a congested Action Scheduler/background task queue ​

  1. Open your scheduled actions/background tasks screen in wp-admin (often Tools > Scheduled Actions, or a similar page added by a plugin).
  2. Check how many tasks are in Pending status.
  3. Look for unusually large backlogs (thousands of pending tasks) and repeated actions coming from the same plugin.
  4. Identify which plugin is creating most pending tasks (for example, cache preloaders, optimization tools, email queues, or other background processors).

If pending tasks are very high, Feedzy imports can be delayed even when Feedzy's cron events are correctly scheduled.

Cache preloader example: WP Rocket ​

WP Rocket's cache preloader can create a large number of queued actions on some sites. If you see WP Rocket preloader tasks dominating the queue:

  1. Temporarily disable preload and monitor your next Feedzy import runs.
  2. If imports recover, re-enable preload with less aggressive settings (lower crawl/preload frequency) so the queue does not fill up again.

Temporary vs long-term fixes ​

Clearing a large backlog of pending actions can provide temporary relief, but delays usually return if the same plugin keeps flooding the queue.

For long-term stability:

  • Reduce or disable the feature generating excessive background tasks.
  • Keep monitoring the queue after changes to confirm pending actions stay at a manageable level.
  • Troubleshoot WP-Cron itself only if Feedzy cron events are missing, stuck in the past, or cannot run manually.

If you’ve tried all the steps and still experience issues, please reach out to us here.