Automated Backups WPCron does not work correctly
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Hello UpdraftPlus Support Team,
I’m experiencing an issue with scheduled backups in UpdraftPlus.
The plugin was freshly installed, Google Drive was set up successfully, and manual backups work and sync correctly.
However, the automatic cron schedules do not behave as expected. Configuration
UpdraftPlus → Settings
- Files backup: Every 2 hours
- Database backup: Every hour
(I also tried other intervals — same behavior.) Cron overview (UpdraftPlus → Advanced → Cron events)
updraftplus_clean_temporary_files Twice daily Next run: 8 February 2026 22:15 (in ~11h 50m) updraft_backup Every 2 hours Next run: 8 February 2026 23:20 (in ~12h 56m) updraft_backup_database Every hour Next run: 8 February 2026 23:20 (in ~12h 56m)So even with hourly / 2-hour schedules, the next execution is always pushed 12–13 hours into the future. Database check
In the WordPress options table (
wp_options), the cron entries look correct:updraft_backup_database → everyhour (3600) updraft_backup → every2hours (7200)The intervals are correct, but the timestamps are always far in the future. What I already tried
- Manual backups (successful, but do not affect next scheduled run)
- Changing schedules (manual → hourly / 2h → save)
- Triggering wp-cron externally via system cron
- Deleting and re-saving UpdraftPlus settings
- Verified timezone (correct)
- Verified wp-cron execution (triggered hourly by cronjob)
- Enough site traffic
- No caching plugin active
define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);is not set
Attempted workaround (manual cron reset)
I also tried explicitly deleting and re-scheduling the cron events via code:
add_action('init', function () {
if (!current_user_can('manage_options')) return;
if (!isset($_GET['updraft_cron_reset'])) return;
wp_clear_scheduled_hook('updraft_backup');
wp_clear_scheduled_hook('updraft_backup_database');
wp_clear_scheduled_hook('updraftplus_clean_temporary_files');
$now = time() + 60;
wp_schedule_event($now, 'every2hours', 'updraft_backup');
wp_schedule_event($now, 'everyhour', 'updraft_backup_database');
wp_schedule_event($now, 'twicedaily', 'updraftplus_clean_temporary_files');
wp_die('Updraft cron events reset');
});Does also not work. Cron events are “0 minutes 0 secs” and after change in plugin settings returns to ~12h.
Expected behavior
If backups are set to:- Database: every hour
- Files: every 2 hours
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Thanks for your reply 🙂
I’ve already installed this plugin, because it was mentioned in your troubleshooting guide
- First of all: There was no cronjob in the WP Control plugin mentioned for updraft besides the cleanup for temp files
- I checked the same under your plugin > cron events > no cronjobs besides cleanup task found
- i saved again the settings
- now i can see the cronjobs in your and WP Control plugin
- After the timer is running down the 12 hours, the cronjobs seems to be lost and also no backup triggered (i checked google drive > updrafts folder > no new backups since days)
Okay, it looks like I found the issue myself!
The
wp-contentfolder had permissions set to 705 instead of 755/750. After correcting this, I can now see the cron events with the correct timers.I’ll provide final feedback after 1–2 days of testing 🙂
Maybe this is something you could pass on to your developers — for example, UpdraftPlus could check the permissions of relevant folders automatically?Okay, sadly this also did not fix the issue.
For a short moment I could see correct timers, but today it is again always +13 hours, and the backups are not executed at all (not even after those 13 hours have passed).
What I tested today:
- Reset UpdraftPlus plugin (again)
- Deleted all UpdraftPlus-related entries from the database
- Verified directory permissions (0755) and file permissions (0644)
- Restored the site on another hoster (where it works fine for my other client installations)
- Installed a completely fresh WordPress on a known working hoster and installed only UpdraftPlus
In all cases, the issue persists on this specific environment.
At this point I am fairly certain the issue is related to either:
- datetime handling (timezone / UTC offset / server time mismatch),
- cron execution,
- file system permissions,
- or possibly a regression in the latest UpdraftPlus update.
It is worth mentioning that this behavior does not occur on my other installations (same plugin version), which suggests an environment-specific trigger.
One important observation:
If I manually set the “next cron date” via WP Crontrol so that it matches the intended interval (Files → every 2 hours, Database → every 1 hour), everything works perfectly.
As long as I do not save the UpdraftPlus settings again, the cron jobs execute correctly and the backups are successfully uploaded to Google Drive.The issue only reappears immediately after saving the UpdraftPlus settings, when the next run is rescheduled to +13 hours again.
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