Feeds are not updating automatically, and trouble trying to refresh manually

@tcwaters:

If the feed you are importing has an unusually large number of events, your server/host could be running out of memory before the task completes. If this is the case, there are 3 ways you can increase your server’s memory limit (choose one):

1. If you’re using WordPress, add this to wp-config file:
define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’);

2. Edit your PHP.ini file
If you have access to your PHP.ini file, change the line in PHP.ini
If your line shows 64M, try 256M:
memory_limit = 256M

3. Edit your .htaccess file
If you don’t have access to PHP.ini try adding this to an .htaccess file:

php_value memory_limit 256M

Thanks Sunny! My server admin has confirmed that memory is already set to 256M.

For most of the feeds, I am able to manually refresh, but I have one feed that I can not. In that feed, the number of events is not that large, a weekly recurring meeting that ends in November, and about 5 other events.

This feed is the one I can’t manually refresh: https://students.pharmacy.pitt.edu/pdc/?plugin=all-in-one-event-calendar&controller=ai1ec_exporter_controller&action=export_events

However, it doesn’t appear any of the feeds are automatically updating as they should.

@tcwaters:

I did test import of your feed and was able to successfully import 4 events, and also manually refresh the feed.

I suggest deleting the feed and adding it again.

Also, if your feeds are not automatically updating, you can check your cron settings by installing a 3rd party plugin such as Advanced Cron Manager where you can view and run cron tasks. The cron task for your calendar is ai1ec_cron and should be set to run hourly.

I deleted the feed, but I’m not sure I have successfully re-added it. The green button says “Please wait” and it has said that now for over 10 minutes. If I refresh the web page (at the top in the URL line, the feed now displays in the list. But no events are added, and I’m still unable to manually refresh the feed.

@tcwaters:

It sounds like your server may be blocking the calendar youa are trying to import, perhaps in your security or firewall or by a security plugin…

To test if the problem is specific to this feed, can you delete and try to re-add a different feed (if you have others).

If a different feed works fine, then, can you try disabling all other plugins and try to delete and re-add the feed again? Also, check your server’s firewall settings to make sure it’s not blocking https://students.pharmacy.pitt.edu

I’ll try another feed, however the two sites are on the same server, so I don’t believe the firewall has anything to do with it.We have 14 feeds coming into the calendar. All are from sub sites to the main site. Example: students.pharmacy.pitt.edu/amcp and students.pharmacy.pitt.edu/pdc. The goal is for all of the feeds to show on the calendar students.pharmacy.pitt.edu.

This is a multisite installation of WP.

@tcwaters:

Let me know the results of the test with the other feed. Also regarding checking and enabling cron tasks if necessary.

I was successful in deleting a different feed and re-adding it again.

On the problematic feed, I deleted events and re-added them one by one. The feed could be manually refreshed with each event UNTIL,, I added a recurring event. Once that event was added, the feed would no longer refresh.

Feed that is the issue: This feed is the one I can’t manually refresh: https://students.pharmacy.pitt.edu/pdc/?plugin=all-in-one-event-calendar&controller=ai1ec_exporter_controller&action=export_events

Event that is the problematic event: PDC Weekly Meeting, every Monday 12-1 recurring until December 18th.

@tcwaters:

I ran some tests on the feed.

First I downloaded the ICS file by clicking on that feed. It validated fine with no errors on icalendar.org/validator.html. So I do not believe that your recurring event is wrong, and, it should not break any sync operation.

I imported the ICS file to a test WordPress site: result successful, imported 4 events.

I imported the feed https://students.pharmacy.pitt.edu/pdc/?plugin=all-in-one-event-calendar&controller=ai1ec_exporter_controller&action=export_events: result successful, imported 4 events.

I refreshed the feed manually: result successful, imported 4 events.

Lastly, I manually ran the cron task “ai1ec_cron” (which is set to run hourly and refreshes all feeds). I edited one of the events by adding some text before doing this. After the cron task was run, the added text was gone, indicating that the cron function’s syncing of the feed was successful (synced events, upon refresh, will over-write any manual edits).

Where this takes us now:

I recommend that you make sure your WordPress installation is up-to-date, and also our Core plugin calendar is up-to-date, under Plugins. Also make sure your host is running PHP 5.6 or newer, as older versions are depricated and unsupported.

If the manual refresh is still not working for you, there could be a conflict with either your theme or another plugin.

Todo: try a different theme temporarily such as Twenty Seventeen, or, disable all plugins and then check if the manual refresh works — then re-enable each one until you find which one caused the problem. Let me know the results.

If none of those options fix your problem, I can send you instructions to do a manual re-install of the plugin.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Sunny Lal.

Sunny,
Thanks for your help. I have resolved the issue with the one feed that wouldn’t display at all on the calendar. https://students.pharmacy.pitt.edu/pdc/?plugin=all-in-one-event-calendar&controller=ai1ec_exporter_controller&action=export_events

I went into WordPress and renamed the site from /pdc/ to /PhiDeltaChi/ and then imported the feed, and it imported 4 events.

@tcwaters:

Thanks for the information. It’s helpful in case anyone else has a problem with a feed that isn’t syncing. How did you come to the conclusion to change the URL? Did you re-install, or just change the directory name? Was it named /PhiDeltaChi/ before?

Sunny,

We have two issues happening. They may be related, but perhaps are not. So I want to break them down.

1) If I go in and manually try and update feeds, the button changes to “refreshing” and never seems to complete. If I open another web window and look at the calendar, new events have been added, even though the feeds page still shows it as “refreshing.”

2) The feeds do not seem to be refreshing automatically.

You suggested earlier doing a manual re-install of AI1EC. I’d like to give that a try. Is this a matter of deleting the plugin folder via FTP, and then uploading the plugin again, or is the process a little more than that?

Thx for all of your help!

Hi @tcwaters,

1. The refresh on a large feed with thousands of events can take a lot of time. Your server could run out of memory, or, the time out limit could be reached (since there is no limit or cap on the number of events you can import, technology becomes the limit). So you can try to increase your server’s memory limit, or, check the number of events you are importing and try to import a filtered version of the calendar instead (reducing the total number of events).

2. Auto refresh is based on your server’s cron function. If this is not happening, bear in mind that the cron task is set to run every hour. So if your one feed is takign longer than that, it may be hanging the process.

The cron job for our calendar is called:

ai1ec_cron

You can check your cron settings by installing a 3rd party plugin such as Advanced Cron Manager where you can view and run cron tasks.

Sunny,

None of our feeds contain “thousands of events.” At most, we are talking like 20-25 events.

The feed that I described this morning has 4 events, not thousands.

We believe that the site’s cron is functioning as other cron tasks listed (with Advanced Cron Manager) appear to be completing.

@tcwaters:

Proceeding with manual re-install:

– Backup your current events by scrolling down to the bottom of your calendar and click on the [Subscribe] button, then click on “Add to Timely Calendar” and download the events file (download.ics).
– Perform a complete back up of your database before proceeding further
– Delete the file uninstall.php from the plugin directory that is currently on the server (found under /wp-content/plugins/all-in-one-event-calendar). Deleting this file ensures that when you uninstall the current version of the plugin, your event data and calendar settings will be preserved when you delete the plugin (don’t skip this step – it’s important!)
– Deactivate the All-in-One Event Calendar using your WordPress Dashboard.
– Delete the All-in-One Event Calendar using your WordPress Dashboard.
– Database -> wp_options, click option_name to sort and delete everything with ai1ec_, this will delete plugin settings but events will remain in the database.
– Now install the latest version.