Cron Job is not working

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The Basics

  • Nextcloud Server version (e.g., 29.x.x):
    • 30.0.10
  • Operating system and version (e.g., Ubuntu 24.04):
    • Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
  • Web server and version (e.g, Apache 2.4.25):
    • docker image integrated
  • Reverse proxy and version _(e.g. nginx 1.27.2)
    • Caddy 2.9.1
  • PHP version (e.g, 8.3):
    • docker image integrated
  • Is this the first time you’ve seen this error? (Yes / No):
    • Yes
  • When did this problem seem to first start?
    • May 16th 2025
  • Installation method (e.g. AlO, NCP, Bare Metal/Archive, etc.)
    • Not-AIO docker image (see https://github.com/nextcloud/docker)
  • Are you using CloudfIare, mod_security, or similar? (Yes / No)
    • No

Summary of the issue you are facing:

My server has been running well for the last several months. Nothing related to the cron job went wrong. However, today nextcloud said that the last time a cron job was executed was 9 days ago. I checked my crontab settings for the root user:

*/5 * * * * docker exec -it --user www-data nextcloud-app-1 php -f /var/www/html/cron.php

When I tried manually executing the command above, the job WAS properly done and nextcloud would tell me that “last job was done 1 minute ago” with a green tick. However, the message changed to “last job was done (for example) 37 minutes ago. something seems to going wrong” afterwards. The weird thing was that NO error was reported from either crontab (cron.service) or the nextcloud server, and crontab seemed to have no problem executing other jobs. I tried restarting the cron.service and even the whole system, but none of them solved the problem.

Log entries

Nextcloud

Please provide the log entries from your Nextcloud log that are generated during the time of problem (via the Copy raw option from Administration settings->Logging screen or from your nextcloud.log located in your data directory). Feel free to use a pastebin/gist service if necessary.

Acquire it at https://nextcloud.zykerman.site/s/Y42fRpBxmRXtjT8

Configuration

Nextcloud

The output of occ config:list system or similar is best, but, if not possible, the contents of your config.php file from /path/to/nextcloud is fine (make sure to remove any identifiable information!):

{
    "system": {
        "htaccess.RewriteBase": "\/",
        "memcache.local": "\\OC\\Memcache\\APCu",
        "apps_paths": [
            {
                "path": "\/var\/www\/html\/apps",
                "url": "\/apps",
                "writable": false
            },
            {
                "path": "\/var\/www\/html\/custom_apps",
                "url": "\/custom_apps",
                "writable": true
            }
        ],
        "upgrade.disable-web": true,
        "instanceid": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "passwordsalt": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "secret": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "trusted_domains": [
            "nextcloud.zykerman.site"
        ],
        "trusted_proxies": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "overwriteprotocol": "https",
        "overwritehost": "nextcloud.zykerman.site",
        "datadirectory": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbtype": "mysql",
        "version": "30.0.10.1",
        "overwrite.cli.url": "https:\/\/nextcloud.zykerman.site",
        "dbname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbhost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbport": "",
        "dbtableprefix": "oc_",
        "mysql.utf8mb4": true,
        "dbuser": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "dbpassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "installed": true,
        "maintenance": false,
        "memcache.distributed": "\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis",
        "memcache.locking": "\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis",
        "redis": {
            "host": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
            "password": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
            "port": 6379
        },
        "default_phone_region": "CN",
        "forwarded_for_headers": [
            "HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR",
            "HTTP_X_REAL_IP"
        ],
        "default_language": "zh_CN",
        "mail_smtpmode": "smtp",
        "mail_smtpauth": 1,
        "mail_sendmailmode": "smtp",
        "mail_from_address": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_domain": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtphost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtpport": "465",
        "mail_smtpsecure": "ssl",
        "mail_smtpname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "mail_smtppassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "skeletondirectory": "\/skeleton",
        "loglevel": 1,
        "appstoreenabled": true,
        "appstoreurl": "https:\/\/www.orcy.net\/ncapps\/v2\/",
        "filelocking.enabled": true,
        "maintenance_window_start": 17
    }
}

Apps

The output of occ app:list (if possible).

Enabled:
  - activity: 3.0.0
  - app_api: 4.0.6
  - bruteforcesettings: 3.0.0
  - cadviewer: 10.10.7
  - calendar: 5.2.3
  - camerarawpreviews: 0.8.7
  - checksum: 1.2.6
  - circles: 30.0.0
  - cloud_federation_api: 1.13.0
  - comments: 1.20.1
  - contactsinteraction: 1.11.0
  - dashboard: 7.10.0
  - dav: 1.31.1
  - end_to_end_encryption: 1.16.2
  - federatedfilesharing: 1.20.0
  - federation: 1.20.0
  - files: 2.2.0
  - files_downloadlimit: 3.0.0
  - files_external: 1.22.0
  - files_pdfviewer: 3.0.0
  - files_reminders: 1.3.0
  - files_sharing: 1.22.0
  - files_trashbin: 1.20.1
  - files_versions: 1.23.0
  - firstrunwizard: 3.0.0
  - forms: 5.1.0
  - logreader: 3.0.0
  - lookup_server_connector: 1.18.0
  - nextcloud_announcements: 2.0.0
  - notes: 4.12.0
  - notifications: 3.0.0
  - notify_push: 1.0.0
  - oauth2: 1.18.1
  - onlyoffice: 9.8.0
  - password_policy: 2.0.0
  - photos: 3.0.2
  - polls: 7.4.2
  - privacy: 2.0.0
  - provisioning_api: 1.20.0
  - recommendations: 3.0.0
  - related_resources: 1.5.0
  - serverinfo: 2.0.0
  - settings: 1.13.0
  - sharebymail: 1.20.0
  - spreed: 20.1.6
  - support: 2.0.0
  - survey_client: 2.0.0
  - systemtags: 1.20.0
  - talk_matterbridge: 1.31.1026000
  - tasks: 0.16.1
  - text: 4.1.0
  - theming: 2.6.0
  - twofactor_backupcodes: 1.19.0
  - updatenotification: 1.20.0
  - user_status: 1.10.0
  - viewer: 3.0.0
  - weather_status: 1.10.0
  - webhook_listeners: 1.1.0-dev
  - workflowengine: 2.12.0
Disabled:
  - admin_audit: 1.20.0
  - encryption: 2.18.0
  - suspicious_login: 8.0.0
  - twofactor_nextcloud_notification: 4.0.0
  - twofactor_totp: 12.0.0-dev
  - user_ldap: 1.21.0

Tips for increasing the likelihood of a response

  • Use the preformatted text formatting option in the editor for all log entries and configuration output.
  • If screenshots are useful, feel free to include them.
    • If possible, also include key error output in text form so it can be searched for.
  • Try to edit log output only minimally (if at all) so that it can be ran through analyzers / formatters by those trying to help you.

this is a sign something is wrong with cron job. as you manual task runs I would sugest focus on differences from interactive to cron environment - but this more a base OS task rather NC related application problem so you better ask in the specialized OS forum. my guess would be either it doesn’t find docker command or it doesn’t find nextcloud-app-1

the recommended way to run NC background tasks in Docker is a “sidecar” container - review Docker .examples or docker-compose-setup-with-notify-push-2024 for details

Well, the day when the issue prompted seemed to be the day I performed a apt upgrade and the whole docker-ce was upgraded, which might be the cause of the issue. Anyway, I removed the -it parament in my docker command and that solved the problem.

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