# After update to v.34.0.1, cron.php: CleanupBackgroundJobsJob reports "ps: cmd: keyword not found"

**URL:** <https://help.nextcloud.com/t/after-update-to-v-34-0-1-cron-php-cleanupbackgroundjobsjob-reports-ps-cmd-keyword-not-found/246703>\
**Category:** ℹ️ Support\
**Tags:** nc34, cron\
**Created:** [July 8, 2026, 12:00am UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/after-update-to-v-34-0-1-cron-php-cleanupbackgroundjobsjob-reports-ps-cmd-keyword-not-found/246703 "2026-07-08T00:00:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![4slam](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/4slam/32/39662_2.png) [@4slam](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/4slam)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 12:00am UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/after-update-to-v-34-0-1-cron-php-cleanupbackgroundjobsjob-reports-ps-cmd-keyword-not-found/246703/1 "2026-07-08T00:00:20Z")

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After updating to v.34.0.1, `cron.php` started reporting the following:

```auto
ps: cmd: keyword not found
ps: no valid keywords; valid keywords:

```

`cron.php` seems to be completing, so these don’t seem to be fatal errors.

Today, the pertinent output excerpt from `cron.php`, run with the `--verbose` flag, was:

```auto
Starting job OC\Core\BackgroundJobs\CleanupBackgroundJobsJob (id:
100550618071846912, arguments: null)
ps: cmd: keyword not found
ps: no valid keywords; valid keywords:
ps: cmd: keyword not found
ps: no valid keywords; valid keywords:
ps: cmd: keyword not found
ps: no valid keywords; valid keywords:
ps: cmd: keyword not found
ps: no valid keywords; valid keywords:
ps: cmd: keyword not found
ps: no valid keywords; valid keywords:
Job OC\Core\BackgroundJobs\CleanupBackgroundJobsJob (id:
100550618071846912, arguments: null) done in 0.27 seconds

```

- I’ve scheduled `cron.php` to run twice every hour. This happens in about 50% of the runs.
- The instances that don’t produce these messages don’t report that `CleanupBackgroundJobsJob` has run, so `cron.php` apparently does not always run this job.
- The number of times the two lines occur in the output has increased incrementally since they first started appearing. Initially they occurred once, now they occur five times.

What’s going on here?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sei77](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/sei77/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@sei77](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/sei77)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 10:35am UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/after-update-to-v-34-0-1-cron-php-cleanupbackgroundjobsjob-reports-ps-cmd-keyword-not-found/246703/2 "2026-07-09T10:35:35Z")

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Hi,

I am facing the same problem.

What I have found so far:

The problem are different implementations of the command “ps” on Linux and FreeBSD. My Nextcloud instance runs on FreeBSD, the “ps”-command there does not have an format option (-o) “cmd”. Instead it has a format option “command”.

“ps” on a Ubuntu Linux has the format option “cmd”.

Secondly “CleanupBackgroundJobsJob” is new in 34.0.1, it does not exists in the 33.0.6 Backup.

So I think there needs to be a distinction implemented in CleanupBackgroundJobsJob to respect different “ps” implementations.

Quick and dirty fix: Replace “cmd” with “command” in CleanupBackgroundJobsJob.php should work (not tested here).

I hope this helps.

Best regards

Sven

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SysKeeper](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/syskeeper/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@SysKeeper](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/SysKeeper)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 10:35am UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/after-update-to-v-34-0-1-cron-php-cleanupbackgroundjobsjob-reports-ps-cmd-keyword-not-found/246703/3 "2026-07-09T10:35:58Z")

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There’s work on this to have a better handling for that job.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![4slam](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/4slam/32/39662_2.png) [@4slam](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/4slam)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 5:48pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/after-update-to-v-34-0-1-cron-php-cleanupbackgroundjobsjob-reports-ps-cmd-keyword-not-found/246703/4 "2026-07-09T17:48:04Z")

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@sei77 thanks!

My Nextcloud is also running on FreeBSD. ~~I’ll report the issue.~~

Bug report: [Background job cleanup fails on BSD/macOS; also `background_jobs_expiration_days` is ignored · Issue #61635 · nextcloud/server · GitHub](https://github.com/nextcloud/server/issues/61635)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SysKeeper](https://help.nextcloud.com/letter_avatar/syskeeper/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@SysKeeper](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/SysKeeper)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 5:54pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/after-update-to-v-34-0-1-cron-php-cleanupbackgroundjobsjob-reports-ps-cmd-keyword-not-found/246703/5 "2026-07-09T17:54:27Z")

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No need, if you check, there’s already an issue and PR for that exactly 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://help.nextcloud.com/user_avatar/help.nextcloud.com/system/32/29333_2.png) [@system](https://help.nextcloud.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/after-update-to-v-34-0-1-cron-php-cleanupbackgroundjobsjob-reports-ps-cmd-keyword-not-found/246703/6 "2026-07-17T17:55:16Z")

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