Title: Total Upkeep Admin Slowdown
Last modified: August 24, 2026

---

# Total Upkeep Admin Slowdown

 *  [roaming1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/roaming1/)
 * (@roaming1)
 * [1 week, 4 days ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/total-upkeep-admin-slowdown/)
 * I have the premium plugin and have submitted this issue twice to support over
   the past weeks but have gottne no response. I have tried to solve/troubleshoot
   the issue with no success – have had to roll-back to the previous version. The
   issue occurs on seven separate WordPress installations. After updating to 1.17.4,
   the WordPress admin becomes extremely slow. Deactivating the base plugin immediately
   restores normal performance. Controlled timing results
 * Using Query Monitor on the same ordinary WordPress Dashboard screen:
    - Total Upkeep inactive: **0.4676 seconds**
    - Previous Total Upkeep version active: **0.7076 seconds**
    - Total Upkeep 1.17.4 active: **9.0696 seconds**
    - Total Upkeep 1.17.4 settings page: **12.6849 seconds**
 * This confirms that the regression is introduced by version 1.17.4. What has been
   ruled out
    - Total Upkeep Premium is not responsible.
    - The base plugin causes the slowdown with Premium deactivated.
    - Switching from system cron to WP-Cron makes no difference.
    - Switching from Astra to a default WordPress theme makes no difference.
    - The same behavior occurs across seven sites.
    - Database performance is normal.
    - Memory usage is normal.
    - External HTTP calls do not account for the delay.
 * Query Monitor findings
 * With Total Upkeep 1.17.4 active:
    - Total Dashboard generation time: **9.0696 seconds**
    - Time spent during `admin_init`: **8.3700 seconds**
    - Total database time: **0.0421 seconds**
    - Total Upkeep database queries: **28 queries totaling 0.0046 seconds**
    - HTTP API calls: approximately **0.22 seconds**
    - Peak memory usage: approximately **15.8 MB**
 * The delay is therefore occurring in PHP, filesystem, shell-command, cron or process
   execution rather than MySQL or normal HTTP requests.
 * Total Upkeep registers this callback on `admin_init`:
 *     ```wp-block-code
       Boldgrid_Backup_Admin_Cron->upgrade_crontab_entries()
       ```
   
 * File:
 *     ```wp-block-code
       wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/admin/class-boldgrid-backup-admin-cron.php:1568
       ```
   
 * Query Monitor also reports this suppressed warning:
 *     ```wp-block-code
       file_get_contents(/home/cerram5/boldgrid_backup/crontab):
       Failed to open stream: No such file or directory
       ```
   
 * Caller:
 *     ```wp-block-code
       wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-direct.php:39
       ```
   
 * Component:
 *     ```wp-block-code
       boldgrid-backup
       ```
   
 * The Total Upkeep Preflight Check reports:
 *     ```wp-block-code
       Method used to read cron: Crontab output to file
       ```
   
 * The preflight functionality test passes, but the cron-related fields may remain
   blank for an extended period, and some requests have produced 504 errors. Suspected
   regression
 * Version 1.17.4 appears to be attempting to inspect or upgrade crontab entries
   during `admin_init`. The command expected to create:
 *     ```wp-block-code
       /home/cerram5/boldgrid_backup/crontab
       ```
   
 * does not appear to create the file, but the plugin subsequently attempts to read
   it. The process appears to block for approximately eight seconds before the missing-
   file warning is generated.
 * Because version 1.17.4 includes changes related to rotating stored cron and command-
   line cancellation secrets, please check whether:
    - `upgrade_crontab_entries()` is running on every admin request;
    - the crontab export command is timing out or failing;
    - an empty or missing crontab output file is handled incorrectly;
    - the migration completion state is not being persisted;
    - the plugin waits or retries before checking whether the output file exists.
 * Rolling back to the previous Total Upkeep version immediately restores acceptable
   admin performance.

You must be [logged in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Ftotal-upkeep-admin-slowdown%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
to reply to this topic.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/boldgrid-backup/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=1880952)
 * [Total Upkeep – WordPress Backup Plugin plus Restore & Migrate by BoldGrid](https://wordpress.org/plugins/boldgrid-backup/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/boldgrid-backup/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/boldgrid-backup/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/boldgrid-backup/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/boldgrid-backup/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/boldgrid-backup/reviews/)

 * 0 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [roaming1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/roaming1/)
 * Last activity: [1 week, 4 days ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/total-upkeep-admin-slowdown/)
 * Status: not resolved