Custom recurrence not working / Wp Cron event

Question

I created a wp cron event with a custom interval of 5 minutes, but it is only executed hourly instead of every 5 minutes. (The callback is properly executed.)

The DISABLE_WP_CRON constant is set to true, wp-cron.php is called via crontab every 5 minutes. (https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/cron/hooking-into-the-system-task-scheduler/)

No errors in debug.log (WP_DEBUG set to true).

I created my plugin with the wordpress plugin boilderplate generator (https://wppb.me/).

My code (in class Wp_Goldprice_Activator, function activate()):

    function fetch_metal_prices_recurrence( $schedules ) {
        $schedules['every_five_minutes'] = array(
            'display'  => 'every 5 minutes',
            'interval' => 300
        );
        return $schedules;
    }
    add_filter( 'cron_schedules', 'fetch_metal_prices_recurrence' );

    // Schedule custom-interval Cron Job Event
    if ( ! wp_next_scheduled ( GPR_PLUGIN_NAME . '_fetch_metal_prices' )) {
        wp_schedule_event( current_time( 'timestamp' ), 'every_five_minutes', GPR_PLUGIN_NAME . '_fetch_metal_prices' );
    }

    // Schedule hourly Cron Job Event
    if ( ! wp_next_scheduled ( GPR_PLUGIN_NAME . '_fetch_metal_prices_reschedule' )) {
        wp_schedule_event( current_time( 'timestamp' ), 'hourly', GPR_PLUGIN_NAME . '_fetch_metal_prices_reschedule' );
    }
}

I am rescheduling the 5 minute event every hour, because it disappears after first automatic execution (not on manual execution, though!). The hourly event doesn't disappear (on automatic execution). I couldn't find a reason or solution for that, either. This might be involved in the problem, but still, wp_next_scheduled() immediately returns a time which is 1 hour in the future, not 5.

I am aware, this question has been asked before, but no working solution has been proposed (and posted years ago):

• wp_schedule_event / cron_schedules - custom recurrence time not working in Plugin
• Custom interval is not working
• custom cron interval is not working

Any thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated, I am out of ideas.

Answer 1

Maybe someone will make use of it, I had a similar problem and the solution was to call time() instead of current_time( 'timestamp' ) as the first argument of wp_schedule_event().

So it should look like this: wp_schedule_event( time(), 'custom_interval', 'custom_hook' );

I tried to find a difference between time and current_time('timestamp'), but they appear to return the same output, int unix time.

Answer 2

I know that this answer may not help you now because it's too late :) But here's a full example for a cronjob work in a plugin for the upcoming developers who will meet the same issue ;

////////////////////////////////////////////
/*         CRON Work STARTS HERE           */
/////////////////////////////////////////////
function sh_booking_cronstarter_activation() {
  if( !wp_next_scheduled( 'sh_booking_cronjob_hourly' ) ) {  
     wp_schedule_event( time(), 'hourly', 'sh_booking_cronjob_hourly' ,array());  
  }
  if( !wp_next_scheduled( 'sh_booking_cronjob_daily' ) ) {  
     wp_schedule_event( time(), 'twicedaily', 'sh_booking_cronjob_daily' ,array());  
  }
}
register_activation_hook (__FILE__, 'sh_booking_cronstarter_activation');

function sh_booking_cronstarter_deactivate() { 
  $timestamp = wp_next_scheduled ('sh_booking_cronjob_hourly');
  wp_unschedule_event ($timestamp, 'sh_booking_cronjob_hourly',array());

  $timestampp = wp_next_scheduled ('sh_booking_cronjob_daily');
  wp_unschedule_event ($timestampp, 'sh_booking_cronjob_daily',array());
} 
register_deactivation_hook (__FILE__, 'sh_booking_cronstarter_deactivate');

add_action ('sh_booking_cronjob_hourly', 'cron_sh_booking_cronjob_hourly_6cc9234b',10,0); 
add_action ('sh_booking_cronjob_daily', 'cron_sh_booking_cronjob_daily_6cc9234b',10,0); 

function cron_sh_booking_cronjob_hourly_6cc9234b(){
  /* your logic goes here ;) */
}
function cron_sh_booking_cronjob_daily_6cc9234b(){
  /* your logic goes here ;) */
}

Hop that helps ;)