Scheduled backups not working

I’m having the same problem, plus my scheduled posts aren’t firing. I thought the later versions of WP were supposed to address this chron job issue?

Thanks!

My daily backups are working, but not at the scheduled time. I specified 3am for the time but the backups are being made during the whole day, every day a different time. this is inconvenient as it slows down my site during business hours. Is there a way to force BUWP to perform the backup at the specified time?

Hi there guys – I’m sorry I’ve missed the earlier posts on this topic.

When there are issues with wp-cron, or with scheduled backups running, you can confirm it is related to wp-cron by trying to post a regular scheduled post (mark it private if you have a live site so no one else sees it!).

If it is indeed related to wp-cron, you might have to talk with your host to ensure they don’t have a limit on usage of wp-cron – a few hosts do. But there are a few ways you can try to work around it as well. This post on our site can give you some tips and introduce you to a few additional resources, okay? — https://bwp.hmn.md/support-center/troubleshooting/wp-cron/

Please let me know if you need additional help. I’ll mark this as resolved for now but we can reopen to work through additional troubleshooting if needed.

Kat

Hi Kat,

In the last two weeks, my scheduled backups ran smoothly and on time without making any modifications, so I’m not entirely sure how it got fixed or what the problem actually was. Nevertheless, many thanks for your help ??

Cheers,
Alex

I’ll take good news anytime! Thanks for the update Alex! ??

Kat

Thanks for the update Kat, better late than never!
I had already de-installed the plugin but have now re-installed it. I have set the daily schedule at 2am and hope that like Alex, the scheduled backups will run on that time. I will let you know after tonight.

I did check the wp-cron and that seems to work fine, my scheduled post
was published at the exact time I specified.

To be continued after 2 am (Central European time) ??
Patrick

Hi, unfortunately no backup was made last night at 02:16 am (the time I set). Can you (support) verify that the time set is used in the time zone that the wordpress installation is in? Mine is in CET which is GMT + 1 normally. Still that wouldn’t account for the ‘random’ times my previous backups have been made. But as it seems now, it is not making backups at the scheduled time. I can’t attach screen shots here but I trust you believe me ??
As I said in my last post, I verified wp-cron and that seems to work just fine.

Patrick

It does grab the timezone that is in the settings. I do know that the way wp-cron works will sometimes cause the backups to run at weird times, since it depends on traffic to the site in order to fire off the ‘jobs’ with cron, in this case the backup. Is it possible that you have lower traffic and that could account for the weird times?

Now, if they aren’t running at all, then let’s check a few other things out, so ensure there isn’t a limitation on the server that’s interfering, okay?

• can you run a database-only backup?
• how about a files-only backup?
• If not, try to exclude your /wp-content/uploads folder, then run a manual backup. Does this work? If so, we know the size of your backup is probably hanging up your server.
• If you can, try disabling all other plugins, and switch to a default theme if possible as plugin conflicts can occur. Does that help?
• Can you check with your host about whether they block use of the MySQLDump Command and/or the Unix Zip Command?
• Ask your host or search through their FAQs to see if they have any hard limits set on their server for CPU usage, max_execution_time or other variables. See if you are able to set them in your own php.ini file.

Let me know what you find there and we’ll work through more of the troubleshooting from there, okay?

Kat

Hi Kat, daily backups ran but at weird times as you say.
Scheduled for: 2:16 am, ran at 8:02am, 10:20am, 6:04am the past 3 days.

What I don’t get is that the scheduled time comes before these times and I can assure you there was no site activity then, so why wait until the mentioned times? My site is not even live yet so there should be little activity.

I do get the following error with each backup but I dont’ see that has anything to do with the delayed bacups:
php: proc_get_status() has been disabled for security reasons, /xxxx(site url)xxx/public_html/wp-content/plugins/backupwordpress/vendor/symfony/process/Process.php, 1276

Any idea? Even when the site is live I just want the backups made at the scheduled time and not during ‘business hours’.

THanks
Patrick

There might be a way to work around the limitations of wp-cron by setting up an alternative cron job. We have some basic Cron info as well as additional reading on our site:

https://bwp.hmn.md/support-center/backupwordpress-faqs/#cron

There’s also a bit more information here https://bwp.hmn.md/support-center/troubleshooting/wp-cron/

I’m wondering if you use an external service to run Cron just after (like a minute after) the times you really want those backups to run, if that won’t keep them closer to your desired schedule. Depending on your host, you might be able to set it up within your cPanel or you can use an external service.

Try the links I shared above and see if they help you set it up just the way you need it, okay?

As for the php error – that is related to the ‘proc_open’ commend. If the plugin is working you should be able to ignore this. If you’re having other problems with the files backups at all, you might want to check with your host to see if the ‘proc_open’ command can be enabled on your server/site, and also the ‘proc_get_status’ command. It could be that ‘proc_open’ IS enabled but not the ‘proc_get_status’ – if that’s the case then the backup would work but it wouldn’t be able to communicate with the server about the status of the backup. I think. See what your host says about that and let me know, okay? I’m curious now. ??

Thanks and again, I’m sorry for the trouble you’ve been having,
Kat

Thanks Kat, but I’m non technical, so the above
seems like Chinese to me ??
I will try to have a look at the links later though.
If it’s simple enough for me to do I’ll give it a go.
I do have a web designer for the technical aspects of
my site but I have to pay him for every job he does so
I’ll see if that is worth it.

Thanks again
Patrick

I skimmed over the links just now, and in the first link they name as a possible cause a maintenance plugin. Since my site is not online yet and still behind maintenance plugin, this could be a reason. So I suggest to wait and see what happens once I take it out of maintenance (one of these weeks). I’ll let you know!

Absolutely – I’ll mark this as resolved pending whether we hear back from you that there is still an issue, okay?

Kat

I was let down, when I needed a database backup: found that only one backup had been taken, months ago, when I first installed BackupWordPress.

Not being in a mood to spending a day learning how to run remote cron jobs, I found a product that works: UpdraftPlus Backup/Restore.

I’m sorry you’ve had issues with the database backups @nostradamuszen ??

Kat