Overview: It’s quite frustrating when WordPress fails to publish a scheduled post at the correct time. What’s the point of scheduling a post if it doesn’t get posted? But fixing this problem might be easier than you think. Read on to learn more!
Having the ability to schedule your WordPress posts in advance is a wonderful convenience. For bloggers and other WordPress users, there’s a real feeling of peace of mind that comes with knowing that pending posts will go live exactly when they need to.
You don’t have to sit there staring at the clock and waiting to click the “Publish” button at exactly 9:00 AM, and you don’t have to worry about a post going unseen by your audience because you forgot to come back and publish it after writing it.
By using WordPress’s built-in scheduling feature, you can easily schedule posts for any day and any time. But what happens when something goes wrong and you end up with missed scheduled posts? It can be extremely frustrating.
Fortunately, you can troubleshoot your missed scheduled post issues with just a few steps. Whether you opt to add a plugin or get under the hood yourself, you’ll be able to fix the scheduled post errors and be back to the business in no time. In this blog, we’ll tell you how.
What Causes Missed Scheduled Post Issues
WordPress uses multiple built-in features and plugins to keep your website running the way you like it. WordPress uses a feature called “WP-Cron” to handle time-based functions, including scheduled posts. WP-Cron maintains a “list” of scheduled tasks and carries them out at the appointed time.
If you schedule a post to go live next Tuesday at 9:00 AM, the post should automatically as soon as your website is loaded any time after next Tuesday at 9:00 AM. If it doesn’t appear, it’s time to start taking steps to fix the issue — especially if it happens more than once.
How to Fix Missed Scheduled Post Issues in WordPress:
The first thing we recommend is installing and activating the Missed Scheduled Post Publisher plugin. As it says in the description: “This plugin does one thing and does it well: it fixes the missed schedule error and triggers your scheduled posts to publish on time.” The plugin works out of the box, so you won’t need to change any settings or configurations.
The plugin checks your website every 15 minutes to ensure that WordPress hasn’t missed any scheduled posts. It finds a post that was scheduled but didn’t get published, it changes the status from “scheduled” to “post.” With the ability to work posts and pages alike, this plugin doesn’t affect your site’s speed at all and ensures that your content goes up like clockwork.
3 Ways to Troubleshoot Your Missed Scheduled Posts Error in WordPress:
If installing the plugin didn’t fix your problem, don’t worry. There are still some steps you can try.
Check Your Time Zone Setting:
Checking your time zone settings should be one of the first things you do when you start using WordPress. However, sometimes users overlook this step. Or maybe their WordPress time zone is accurate to where they’re located, but they want to use a different time zone for publishing and managing their content.
Fortunately, you can fix this situation quickly and easily. From your dashboard, go to Settings > General, and scroll down to the Time Zone section. From here, you’ll be able to select the time zone you want to use for scheduling the post. You can choose a city that matches your desired time zone, or simply choose the UTC offset for your location (but make sure it’s the right one!). Then remember to scroll down and click Save Changes to verify your choice.
Clear the WordPress Cache:
Even after you’ve installed the Missed Scheduled Post Publisher plugin, you might need to clear your WordPress cache before it takes effect. The most straightforward way to do this is — guess what? — installing another plugin. There are many plugins designed to help you manage your cache, including WP-Optimize.
After you’ve cleared your cache, try scheduling a post again.
>>> Related Reading: How to clear your cache in WordPress
Increase WordPress Memory Limit:
Another reason you may still be experiencing the missed scheduled post issue: Your WordPress website may be low on memory.
There are a few ways to resolve this. If you’re extremely confident and tech-savvy, you can edit the code in your wp-config file to increase the memory limit. Or you can contact your hosting company and ask them what the memory limit is on your existing plan, and how to upgrade it.
Or you can call in some WordPress experts like the ones on our team at MyUnlimitedWP. This is the easiest option, and we can help you with any other outstanding WordPress problems while we’re at it.
>>> Related reading: WordPress PHP memory limit
In Summary:
If a WordPress missed scheduled post issue is happening to you, you might feel like shaking your fist at that pesky WP-Cron and throwing your computer out the window. But there’s really no need to despair. Take a deep breath, install the plugin described above, and give our troubleshooting tips a try.
If you’re still having a bad experience with scheduled posts — or if you just want somebody else to handle the problem for you — contact our team of WordPress support professionals. Reach out to our team for a smoother, more enjoyable WordPress experience!