Using the Monitor plugin, you can have a view of how and when the WordPress scheduler is activated.
The WordPress scheduler is that system which executes background jobs, like publishing a future post, sending a newsletter, and running a backup.
Here is a picture of the scheduler’s unstable execution and an example of a regularly triggered scheduler run.
The final part of the graph is when the scheduler is triggered by a server 5-minute cron call, while the first part seems to be a random execution. Actually, it is not; it depends on the site traffic and the scheduled jobs.
To have such predictable execution, you can follow a few steps:
- Disable the autotrigger of the scheduler with a
define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);added to your wp-config.php file (not at the end, there is a note in that file to know where to add it!) - Activate an external trigger.
The external trigger can be a cron configuration on your server (many providers have cPanel-specific settings) or a specific online service like Easy Cron or CronJobs.org.
A comprehensive article on how to set up the external trigger can be found here.
Is it important to have a regularly triggered scheduler? No, a basic site does not need it. But if you run something other than a simple site with articles, you probably need it.
Using the Monitor plugin, you can see the list of background jobs and check if they’re executed on time. If not, if they’re very late, you may benefit from an external trigger.
For example, the Newsletter plugin, to grant a smooth newsletter sending, needs a 5-minute internal trigger, but there are plugins that work better with a 1-minute interval.
On the Monitor scheduler overview, you can see the minimum interval required.
The minimum scheduler activation frequency is determined by plugins that require it. For example, if you install WooCommerce, WordFence, and many other plugins, especially if they use the ActionScheduler library, the minimum interval is 1 minute.
Is it strictly necessary to grant that interval? Usually not, everything should work fine anyway, but predictable things are better than random things (in this case).
