Scheduler problem for both posts and back up

That said, if someone is having an issue, they are having the issue regardless of whether you can replicate it or not.

@gilzow – please don’t misunderstand, I totally agree there’s an issue. But you understand the difference between “there’s a problem with WordPress” and “there’s a problem with my implementation of WordPress.” For non software folks, that probably sounded totally annoying semantic, but there’s a difference. It’s like saying “There’s a problem with Nike Shoes” and “There’s a problem with how Nike Shoes fit my feet.” Both are valid issues with Nike, but they’re very different issues. Nike, nor WordPress, can always work 100% the same for everyone, because people are never 100% the same. (Extend the metaphor, and your feet aren’t actually the exact same size/shape, unless you’re Daniel Dae Kim who is freakishly symmetrical, and that’s why you don’t always get the same results when testing the ‘same’ setup in a different location.)

Philosophy aside, how big are your multisites? I ran a scheduled post this morning, and my CPU spiked to 0.89 (normally it’s around 0.1), which is the same as a manually posted post for me (different site on the same network). I’m also using domain mapping on the site with scheduled posts.

To answer your question @ipstenu, yes, all of these sites are on the same “server” (3 virtualized servers behind a physical load balancer, all attached to NFS). And I too am beginning to wonder if the root of the problem lies with this configuration. When I cloned one of the sites over to our development server (a single non-load-balanced server), there were zero issues with the scheduler. Even if I changed the timeout in cron.php back to the default of 0.1 it worked correctly.

Are you seeing any HEAD requests for wp-cron.php in your error logs with a 403? And what’s the load balancer of choice? I have a vague recollection of squid needing to be kicked.

Plugins installed but not activated right now:
MediaElement.js – HTML5 Audio and Video
Select Smart Youtube PRO Smart Youtube PRO

Plugins installed and network activated (and up to date):
Select Akismet Akismet
Jetpack by WordPress.com
W3 Total Cache
Wordpress Backup to Dropbox
Wordpress MU Domain Mapping
Wordpress SEO
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

I don’t see any common plugin with gilzow.

I do see that Doug Hardy mentioned domain mapping… and I do see that we are all using Multisite…

@gilzow, re your question:o you know any specifics on how your bluehost server is configured?

What do you need to know exactly. I am not as techy as you ?? I didn’t do any specific set up (just using Bluehost in its standard set up).
If you tell me what I should look for, I’ll go check in my Cpanel.

Thank you.

I’ll have to request the logs from the sysadmins when they get back on wednesday (i dont want to make the on-call person have to deal with this on new year’s eve), as I dont have access to them. I’ll let you know. If memory serves me correctly, the load balancer is a Nortel/Avaya 2424-SSL.

Yeah, I’m not seeing any CPU spikes either.

@sarah974, one of the sites that I’m seeing issues with is a single wordpress install, not a multisite. And I have a separate multisite install that isnt having issues. As for host configuration, if you are using bluehost’s standard configuration, then you probably dont have anything odd/unusual going on.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin tends to cause CPU spikes when you post, since it has to relate all the posts.

Akismet, Jetpack, W3TC, and WPMU Domain Mapping are all very common plugin sets to have, and I would expect more people to have the problem if it was them, or even the combination thereof. I’ll tag this for Bluehost. I know their WP Guru, maybe he has an idea or can poke.

gilzow – I have a gut feeling that if anything, the balancer or your firewall is hamstringing wp-cron, and possibly not permitting files to call themselves.

But the question remains: why with 3.5 and not the other versions?

Thanks for hanging in there with us ??

Hey guys, I’ve read all the replies.

Something similar is happening with my WordPress install. I did upgrade to the 3.5 version and everything was working smoothly. Two days ago something happened and now the posts are not being posted.

I’ll try some of the things you’ve posted and I’ll let you know.

If someone finds the solution, please post it, I would really appreciate it ??

Cheers.

I am also facing the same problem after upgrading to 3.5 for all my sites. Could it be a problem with the hosting because i have contacted a friend blogger with same hosting and he is also facing same problem?

should i role-back to previous version?

@muhammad irfan – yes. If you want the scheduling feature as of now – reverse to prev version. As Sarah974 tested, the prev version isn’t facing any problem with scheduling.

I am also facing the missed schedule bug on WP 3.5.

Plugins used :

Advanced Social Widget
Akismet
Contact Form 7
FeedBurner FeedSmith
GoCodes
Google XML Sitemaps
No Self Pings
nrelate Related Content
Really Simple CAPTCHA
Really simple Facebook Twitter share buttons
Redirection
Robots Meta
RSS Footer
User Role Editor
W3 Total Cache
WordPress SEO
WP-Optimize

@ipstenu, I would be inclined to agree with you except that I have two other installs (one multisite/network, one single) on the same “server” that aren’t having any issues at all with the scheduler. Now granted, scheduled publishing isnt used on those two sites very often, but every time I’ve scheduled a test post, it has worked.

Regardless, the sysadmins are back today and will send me the logs as soon as I set up another scheduled post. Will post the results of those logs as soon as I have them.

ok, we scheduled a post, watched it fail and then checked the error logs. Nada. Nothing at all for the account during the time period when the post was scheduled to post, and I was visiting the site in a different browser in order to trigger the cron.

I installed the fix plugin, but I’m very interested to hear a resolution for this problem. It is a WordPress core issue, so fingers crossed.

I’ve been having the same issue with missed scheduled posts.
After manually deactivating and manually testing each plug-in I’ve discovered that the only plug-in that the missed schedule fault happens with for me is “w3 total cache”.
Deactivating that plugin does appear to have allowed posts to be published at the scheduled time.
I notice that although that’s a plug-in that’s listed on some of the lists above, it’s not on all but my technical knowledge is reaching it’s edge to offer anything more than these observations.
Hope that bit of extra info helps identify what the route cause etc ??

If any of you have been having problems with this and you have W3 Total Cache activated (and updated), try deactivating it.

It worked for me.

https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/w3tc-causes-failed-blogpost-schedules

Cheers.

We are experiencing the same “Missed Schedule” issue on one of our sites since upgrading to 3.5. Our other four sites running 3.5, on the same VPS, are not experiencing any missed posts. I’ve doublechecked the plugins we’re using, and don’t see anything different on the erroring site than what’s on the functioning sites. I’m stumped!