Description

WordPress relies on WP-Cron to publish scheduled posts. On low-traffic sites, or when WP-Cron is delayed by caching, a post can be left showing the “missed schedule” error and never goes live.

Scheduled Posts Issue Fixer solves this. It registers a cron job that runs every minute, finds posts whose scheduled time has passed but which are still stuck in the future status, and publishes them using WordPress’s own publishing functions.

Why it is safe for performance

Processes at most 20 posts per run, so it never loads your whole post table.
Uses an indexed query against post_date_gmt and post_status.
Returns immediately when there is nothing to publish.
Removes its cron job when the plugin is deactivated or uninstalled.

Features

Publishes overdue posts, pages and custom post types automatically
No settings screen, works as soon as it is activated
Uses wp_publish_post(), so normal publishing hooks still fire for caching, SEO and notification plugins
Filterable batch size and post types
Cleans up its cron event on deactivation and uninstall

Installation

INSTALL “Scheduled Posts Issue Fixer” FROM WITHIN WORDPRESS

Visit the plugins page within your dashboard and select ‘Add New’;
Search for ‘Scheduled Posts Issue Fixer’;
Activate Scheduled Posts Issue Fixer from your Plugins page;
You are done.

INSTALL “Scheduled Posts Issue Fixer” MANUALLY

Upload the ‘scheduled-posts-issue-fixer’ folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory;
Activate the Scheduled Posts Issue Fixer through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress;
You are done.

FAQ

I have activated the plugin, why can’t I see it in the admin panel?

Scheduled Posts Issue Fixer is a “set and forget” plugin. There are no settings. Your scheduled posts are checked automatically once the plugin is active.

Does it work with custom post types?

Yes. By default every post type is checked. You can limit it to specific types with the scheduled_posts_issue_fixer_post_types filter:

add_filter( 'scheduled_posts_issue_fixer_post_types', function ( $types ) {
    return array( 'post', 'page', 'product' );
} );

How many posts are published at a time?

20 per run by default. Change it with the scheduled_posts_issue_fixer_batch_size filter (maximum 500).

My site uses a real server cron. Will this still work?

Yes. The plugin schedules a standard WP-Cron event, so it works with both WP-Cron and a system cron that calls wp-cron.php.

Can I exclude a specific post?

Yes, use the scheduled_posts_issue_fixer_should_publish filter:

add_filter( 'scheduled_posts_issue_fixer_should_publish', function ( $should_publish, $post ) {
    if ( 123 === $post->ID ) {
        return false;
    }
    return $should_publish;
}, 10, 2 );

Does deactivating the plugin remove the cron job?

Yes, on deactivation and on uninstall.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“Scheduled Posts Issue Fixer” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

“Scheduled Posts Issue Fixer” has been translated into 1 locale. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Scheduled Posts Issue Fixer” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

2.0.0

Fixed

Fixed a fatal error on deactivation: deRegisterCron() called wp_clear_scheduled_hook( CRON_NAME ) with an undefined bare constant instead of self::CRON_NAME. On PHP 8 this threw Error: Undefined constant "CRON_NAME" and left the cron job behind permanently.
Fixed the cron job never actually running on a schedule. The plugin registered the interval name every_minute, which is not a valid WordPress cron schedule, so no working event was created. A real every-minute schedule is now registered.
Fixed the cron job not being created when the plugin was updated rather than freshly activated, because activation hooks do not run on update.
Fixed the timezone handling. The query now compares against post_date_gmt in GMT instead of applying gmt_offset twice.

Changed

Rewritten as a namespaced, PSR-4 autoloaded plugin (OptimistHub\ScheduledPostsIssueFixer).
Posts are now published through wp_publish_post() with a fresh post object, and each post’s status is re-checked before publishing, so posts edited between the query and the update are not published by mistake.
Added an uninstall.php that removes the cron event and the legacy cron event name.
Added filters: scheduled_posts_issue_fixer_batch_size, scheduled_posts_issue_fixer_post_types and scheduled_posts_issue_fixer_should_publish.
Requires WordPress 6.0 and PHP 7.4 or newer.

1.0.10

gmt_offset issue fixed.

1.0.9 – 1.0.5

Github automatization completed.

1.0.4

Github readme file update and assets added.

1.0.3

Github action.

1.0.2

Plugin creator alias issue.

1.0.1

Manual installation and activation details added to readme setup

1.0.0

Stable version released

Description

Installation

INSTALL “Scheduled Posts Issue Fixer” FROM WITHIN WORDPRESS

INSTALL “Scheduled Posts Issue Fixer” MANUALLY

FAQ

I have activated the plugin, why can’t I see it in the admin panel?

Does it work with custom post types?

How many posts are published at a time?

My site uses a real server cron. Will this still work?

Can I exclude a specific post?

Does deactivating the plugin remove the cron job?