Title: Automatic Scan? (Free Version)
Last modified: August 30, 2016

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# Automatic Scan? (Free Version)

 *  Resolved [puda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/puda/)
 * (@puda)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/)
 * Sorry, this might be a silly question but it looks like Wordfence is now automatically
   scanning my site twice a day and it has never done that before. How can I prevent
   it from happening?
 * Thanks!
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/)

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

 *  [WFBrian](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfbrian/)
 * (@wfbrian)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668511)
 * Hi,
 * That is odd. The free version should only scan your site once every 24 hours.
   When did this start happening?
 * Thanks,
    Brian
 *  Thread Starter [puda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/puda/)
 * (@puda)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668520)
 * I have no idea! I can see one scan this morning at 7 am and one at 6.45 pm… Next
   scan is for tomorrow at 11.
 *  [WFSupport](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfsupport/)
 * (@wfsupport)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668560)
 * Can you click on the link on the options page to show your scheduled jobs? Screenshot
   that page and attach a link here.
 * Thanks
    tim
 *  Thread Starter [puda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/puda/)
 * (@puda)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668577)
 * None since I don’t have the premium version. I can’t even select this option.
 *  Plugin Author [WFMattR](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfmattr/)
 * (@wfmattr)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668593)
 * Ok. On the Wordfence Options page, near the bottom (a few lines above the “Exporting
   and Importing Wordfence Settings” heading), can you try the link that says “Click
   to view your systems scheduled jobs in a new window”?
 * This link can show Wordfence and WordPress’s scheduled jobs even with the free
   version — it should show some lines that looks like this:
    `Fri, 23 Oct 2015 
   08:07:33 +0000 : wordfence_start_scheduled_scan`
 * That will narrow down the issue, but won’t solve it yet — thanks for your patience!
 * -Matt R
 *  Thread Starter [puda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/puda/)
 * (@puda)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668638)
 * Thanks Matt!
 * I think I am actually seeing a pattern here… Every time I first log in and then
   go to the Scan page, it automatically starts a new scan. Even though I am not
   clicking on ‘Start a Wordfence Scan’. So I have to manually click on ‘Kill the
   current scan’. Looks like there is something automatic behind it. Only happens
   when I haven’t been logged in for a day. Same happened last night when I first
   logged in at 6.30 pm and went to the scan page. I tried to go to the scan page
   at 7 and nothing happened.
 * Regarding the log:
 * Wed, 21 Oct 2015 23:59:12 +0000 : redirection_log_delete
    Thu, 22 Oct 2015 00:
   10:15 +0000 : jetpack_clean_nonces Thu, 22 Oct 2015 00:16:22 +0000 : wp_cache_gc
   Thu, 22 Oct 2015 00:27:53 +0000 : wordfence_hourly_cron Thu, 22 Oct 2015 00:48:
   00 +0000 : wp_maybe_auto_update Thu, 22 Oct 2015 02:59:23 +0000 : backwpup_check_cleanup
   Thu, 22 Oct 2015 04:07:31 +0000 : blc_cron_check_news Thu, 22 Oct 2015 04:08:
   04 +0000 : jetpack_v2_heartbeat Thu, 22 Oct 2015 04:36:35 +0000 : akismet_scheduled_delete
   Thu, 22 Oct 2015 10:22:05 +0000 : wp_version_check Thu, 22 Oct 2015 10:22:05 
   +0000 : wp_update_plugins Thu, 22 Oct 2015 10:22:05 +0000 : wp_update_themes 
   Thu, 22 Oct 2015 10:22:27 +0000 : wp_scheduled_delete Thu, 22 Oct 2015 19:01:
   35 +0000 : wp_scheduled_auto_draft_delete Thu, 22 Oct 2015 23:07:59 +0000 : wordfence_start_scheduled_scan
   Thu, 22 Oct 2015 23:27:53 +0000 : wordfence_daily_cron Fri, 23 Oct 2015 23:46:
   42 +0000 : wordfence_start_scheduled_scan Sat, 24 Oct 2015 23:30:25 +0000 : wordfence_start_scheduled_scan
   Sun, 25 Oct 2015 09:00:00 +0000 : backwpup_cron Sun, 25 Oct 2015 23:11:30 +0000:
   wordfence_start_scheduled_scan Mon, 26 Oct 2015 22:00:00 +0000 : wordfence_email_activity_report
   Mon, 26 Oct 2015 23:13:36 +0000 : wordfence_start_scheduled_scan Tue, 27 Oct 
   2015 23:07:06 +0000 : wordfence_start_scheduled_scan Wed, 28 Oct 2015 23:50:28
   +0000 : wordfence_start_scheduled_scan Thu, 29 Oct 2015 08:07:31 +0000 : blc_cron_database_maintenance
   Sun, 01 Nov 2015 12:22:27 +0000 : publish_future_post Wed, 11 Nov 2015 12:37:
   24 +0000 : publish_future_post
 *  [ELAN42///](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nokao/)
 * (@nokao)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668659)
 * I have the same problem,
    I’m having scheduled scans and I want to do them manually.
 * Is this a bug ?
 *  Plugin Author [WFMattR](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfmattr/)
 * (@wfmattr)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668662)
 * [@puda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/puda/): Thanks for the details. It
   looks like the scheduling part is working correctly, since there are no duplicates
   or scheduled jobs in the past, so that is good.
 * Are you using a page caching plugin, such as W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, 
   or another one? Or even “varnish” on your host, or CloudFlare? If most of your
   site’s pages are cached, WordPress’s scheduler won’t have a chance to run scheduled
   jobs, but it catches up when a non-cached page is visited (including any wp-admin
   pages). That could cause a scan to start running when you first visit the scan
   page after not logging in for a day, and it could cause two scans to run in the
   same day, depending on when they were originally scheduled.
 * If that might be the cause, you could temporarily disable caching for a few days,
   and see if it still occurs — of course, it would make the site slower, which 
   isn’t ideal. Another option is to log in 2 or 3 times a day for a while — you
   might still see the scan start when you view the Scan page, but if that only 
   happens the first time you view the page in a day, it would confirm what is happening.
 * @ELAN42.com: If you don’t want the scheduled scans to run, you can turn off “
   Enable automatic scheduled scans” on the Wordfence Options page. If it is already
   off, you can turn on “Disable config caching” near the bottom of the Options 
   page (some hosts have trouble saving options without this.) If you still have
   trouble after that, can you start a new post? Thanks!
 * -Matt R
 *  Thread Starter [puda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/puda/)
 * (@puda)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668671)
 * Thank you Matt! Yup I am using WP Super Cache and yes I usually log in 2/3 times
   a day and the automatic scan only occurs with first login. So I guess the problem
   has been solved! I don’t mind anyway it’s fine. I thought that was a new option
   but maybe I never realized that because of my cache plugin, Wordfence has been
   doing a scan every time I first logged in.
 *  Plugin Author [WFMattR](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfmattr/)
 * (@wfmattr)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668673)
 * Ok, great!
 * Note that the cache can also cause scheduled posts not to be posted at the right
   times, and some automatic backups may not run on time either, because they both
   use the same part of WordPress (wp-cron.php) for scheduling.
 * One solution (for all of these) is to exclude a single page from the cache — 
   maybe an “about” page or something, that search engines check often, but your
   regular readers don’t constantly visit. That single page will be slower, but 
   any hit on that page should trigger any overdue scheduled jobs to run.
 * -Matt R
 *  Thread Starter [puda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/puda/)
 * (@puda)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668674)
 * Great idea! I will do that tonight.
 * As always thanks for your prompt response!
 *  Thread Starter [puda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/puda/)
 * (@puda)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668686)
 * Hey sorry Matt,
 * So weird, I did not logged in to my admin today but scan started by itself and
   told me one plugin needed to be updated. That’s how I found out the scan started
   as scheduled.
 * Oh well! I guess sometimes it’s working fine and sometimes it’s not!!
 *  [ELAN42///](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nokao/)
 * (@nokao)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668690)
 * I’m having problems saving (exporting) and importing options,
    performance setup–
   caching (radio button) is not saved, and sometimes a few options are randomly
   lost.
 * Should I open a new thread about that ?
 *  Plugin Author [WFMattR](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfmattr/)
 * (@wfmattr)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668692)
 * [@puda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/puda/): Yes, if a visitor or crawler
   reaches a page that wasn’t cached by the caching plugin, the scan can run at 
   that time — it’s just when every visitor reaches a page that was already cached,
   the scan and other scheduled tasks be skipped. (The reason is that the cache 
   sends the saved page to the visitor before WordPress has a chance to do anything,
   which is part of the reason a cache is faster.)
 * @ELAN42.com: I see your other post and will answer there shortly. Thanks!
 * -Matt R

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

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 * Last activity: [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-scan/#post-6668692)
 * Status: resolved