Automatic backups fail but can do a manual backup

Hi and thanks for getting in contact …

Sorry to hear that you’re having problems with WP-Cron (which is not the same as Cron). Typically what happens is people schedule a backup for a ‘quiet’ time like 7am and the wp-cron job doesn’t happen. This is because WP-Cron needs to be triggered (by someone visiting your website for instance).

WP Cron doesn’t work the same as normal Cron — and WP Cron is what all WordPress plugins, etc use — so you won’t find it listed on your servers cron jobs.

Have a read of this … https://wp.tutsplus.com/articles/insights-into-wp-cron-an-introduction-to-scheduling-tasks-in-wordpress/ and try scheduling your automatic backup for a time when you know you have some traffic to your site.

Also … you might like to try this plugin https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/wp-crontrol/

hope that helps?

Damien

Hi Damien:
Thanks for your prompt and detailed reply. I should have clarified that the WordPress plugin I installed (View Cron), lets me view WP cron jobs – not server cron jobs. I tried your suggestion and scheduled the backup for a high traffic time but the job is still not happening automatically. There is a scheduled wp cron job named “wp_db_backup_cron” in my list – is that related to your plugin? I’m not a coder or very highly technical, so I really think the crontrol suggestion is way too technical for me. And now I’m having an issue with my rss to email service that is apparently due to a conflict with the time that the server is reporting, so I am investigating whether the two may be related. Will let you know if I resolve it. Thanks so much.
Barbara

Hi Barbara

I’d guess that you also have wp_db_backup plugin also installed … as well as mine.

wp_db_backup_cron is not my wp-cron job

Could they both be running at the same time?

Thanks

Damien

Hi Damien: Yes, after the automatic backup function of your plugin stopped working for me, I installed and tested several other backup plugins, one of which was wp_db_backup. I finally got that one working by disabling the database caching and object caching in W3 Total Cache plugin, however I really prefer your plugin because it offers much more functionality so I reinstalled yours, hoping that the W3TC changes would allow yours to work as well.

Unfortunately, the auto-backup still does not work. When I look at the jobs in wp-cron, I see only wp_db_backup_cron, which, as you say, is associated with wp_db_backup. Strangely, that cron job still shows up after deactivating and deleting the files for wp_db_backup. Also, two cron jobs for the Updraft backup plugin are also still showing up in the list of cron jobs, though this plugin has also been deactivated and deleted. All the other tasks in the list are WordPress or Total Cache related – I see nothing that could be a cron job for your plugin. Any thoughts?

Hi, I had the same problem (so I found this tread). But in my case the reason was a working maintance mode.(plugin “wp-maintenance-mode”).
Switch off and the backup schedule.

We would also like to hear the feedback from the plugin author.