Website needs to be opened for wp_mail to work

Question

I have a custom post type Events. In that post type, I can schedule events with a date and time. Whenever I publish an event, it will automatically send an email to the users 2 days before the event.

However, I noticed that in order for the script to work, I need to have the wesite running. Is my assumption correct? I can't seem to find anything in the Codex regarding this.

How do I fix this?

I am using a plugin called wp-delayed-mail

Answer 1

This plugin uses WordPress CRON API. Its no the same thing as usual CRON jobs available at cPanel dashboard. The difference is in the way how they are executed.

When somebody visits your site, WordPress checks if there is a scheduled job which has to be run, then WordPress runs this job by initiating a separate request to a specific URL. If nobody visits your site, then your CRON jobs won't be run even if they are already overdue...

In other words to run WordPress CRON jobs in time you have to have visitors on your site. Another option would be to ping your site by using special service...