Source evidence

Maximum simultaneous queues

Action Scheduler · support · 2026-06-12T06:38:00+00:00

Action Scheduler plugin evidence original source source API

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techguysa resolved

HI there passed week or so noticed Maximum simultaneous queues already in progress (2 queues). No additional queues will begin processing until the current queues are complete. For example now i have this snippet cause the ques piled up on past due like crazy. add_filter( ‘action_scheduler_queue_runner_concurrent_batches’, ‘tg_custom_concurrent_queues’ ); function tg_custom_concurrent_queues( $concurrent_batches ) { return 2; // Bumps max simultaneous queues from 2 to 4 } add_filter( ‘action_scheduler_queue_runner_batch_size’, ‘tg_custom_as_batch_size’ ); function tg_custom_as_batch_size( $batch_size ) { return 100; // Increases items processed per batch from 100 to 150 } to help speed things up but even if its not on the stuff piles up as much as 2 days (if not more) its mostly gla jobs also got this in my functions add_filter( ‘action_scheduler_retention_period’, ‘t*****custom_as_retention’ ); function t****_custom_as_retention( $period ) { return 3 * DAY_IN_SECONDS; } i asterixed it out her but this to clear old logs etc I had to go to terminal in cpanel and run php wp-cli.phar action-scheduler run –batches=5 –force (i change the 5 to 50 or 100 depending on the servers performance) everything is updated on teh site my sql database starts eating RAM when this piles up. (Slowly) *sql tables are about 7million i have a ton of stuff now originally had the advanced scheduler as recommened by one of your teams but seems to do nothing to help (so i purged it google gemini advised it can cause issues cause it starts looping). and trust me optimised SQL to death. Since i got past due up to date to 186 at 2am and now being 08:30 am its on 2552 and pending is on 3456 I find no suspiciouos bots attacking the site etc again its mostly gla/jobs/update_products/process_item (in past due its 1352) and woocommerce_run_product_attribute_lookup_update_callback (in past due its 1153) Yes stock updates every few hours this issue cuase that stock updates to slow down to a point it takes close to an hour to run the updated even on 3000 skus and its just QTY updates if i do regular_price manually its fine but i know if its via real cron takes about an hour when these things piles up. IF this helps (For security i changed the tables names to REDACTED NAME for here WordPress Environment WordPress address (URL): https://www.techguysa.co.za Site address (URL): https://www.techguysa.co.za WC Version: 10.8.1 Legacy REST API Package Version: ✔ 1.0.5 Action Scheduler Version: ✔ 3.9.3 Log Directory Writable: ✔ WP Version: 7.0 WP Multisite: – WP Memory Limit: 4 GB WP Debug Mode: – WP Cron: – WP Environment Type: production Language: en_US External object cache: ✔ Server Environment Server Info: LiteSpeed Server Architecture: Linux 5.14.0-611.16.1.el9_7.x86_64 x86_64 PHP Version: 8.3.31 PHP Post Max Size: 512 MB PHP Time Limit: 2400 PHP Max Input Vars: 100000 cURL Version: 8.19.0 OpenSSL/3.5.1 SUHOSIN Installed: – MySQL Version: 11.4.12-MariaDB Max Upload Size: 512 MB Default Timezone is UTC: ✔ fsockopen/cURL: ✔ SoapClient: ✔ DOMDocument: ✔ GZip: ✔ Multibyte String: ✔ Remote Post: ✔ Remote Get: ✔ Database WC Database Version: 10.8.1 WC Database Prefix: Redacted NAME_ Total 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Commercial Context

Opportunity

hosting operations and site health

Cron site-health operations for keeping hosted WordPress sites healthy across caching, updates, backups, and support handoffs

Buyer: site owners, agencies, and maintenance teams

Wedge: monitor cron health, updates, cache state, cron jobs, and maintenance exceptions

Proof Blocked card complete market

Analysis

codex:gpt-5.5

Summary: A high-volume WooCommerce store had Action Scheduler queues piling up enough to threaten database memory until a dedicated WP-CLI cron stabilized processing.

Evidence quote: without it would hang / freeze and ram would build up close to OOM if not OOM on MariaDB

Affected feature: Action Scheduler queues

performance setup Action Scheduler queues

Plugin

API

Action Scheduler

20.0K active installs · 664.0K downloads · rating 70.0

cron scheduler

Comments

4 shown

Andy – a11n 2026-06-16T08:13:00+00:00

Hey there, Thanks for sharing all that detail, the environment info, the server specs, and the code snippets. That makes it much easier to pinpoint what is happening here. The root cause: WP-Cron is disabled From the environment details you shared in your post, we can see that WP Cron is disabled on your site. This is a critical detail because Action Scheduler relies on WP-Cron to automatically trigger its queue runner every minute. With WP-Cron disabled and no server-side cron replacement firing wp-cron.php on a schedule, Action Scheduler has no way to automatically process the queue. That explains why actions pile up so fast overnight and between your manual WP-CLI runs. The fix: automate your WP-CLI command via a cPanel cron job You are already doing exactly the right thing by running wp action-scheduler run through your cPanel terminal. The issue is that you are doing it manually. Since you have cPanel access, you can automate this by setting up a cron job through cPanel’s Cron Jobs interface to run that same command every minute or every two minutes. This way, the queue will be continuously drained without you having to intervene. You can use the --batch-size and --batches flags to control how much work each run does, and the --group flag to prioritize specific action groups if needed. The full set of options is documented on the Action Scheduler WP-CLI page . For background on why WP-CLI processing is the recommended approach for high-volume stores like yours, take a look at the Action Scheduler Background Processing at Scale guide . Additionally, even with WP-Cron disabled, it is good practice to still have a server-side cron job triggering wp-cron.php so that other WordPress scheduled events continue to work normally. The WooCommerce guide on replacing WP-Cron with a real cron job walks through how to set that up in cPanel. A quick note on your code snippets The comments in your concurrent batches filter say “Bumps from 2 to 4” while the function returns 2. Similarly, the batch size comment says “Increases from 100 to 150” while it returns 100. The actual values sent to Action Scheduler are whatever the function returns, so the comments and the code are out of sync. That said, once you have a cron-driven WP-CLI runner in place, these web-based queue tuning filters become much less important since WP-CLI bypasses those limits entirely when using the --force flag. With 60,000+ products and Google for WooCommerce syncing each one individually through Action Scheduler, a cron-automated WP-CLI setup is really the way to go for a store at your scale. It will keep the queue moving around the clock without relying on site traffic or manual intervention.

techguysa 2026-06-16T09:10:00+00:00

HI yes cron disabled for real cron in wp-config define( ‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true ); This is in $table_prefix =DATABASE NAME and in cpanel cron jobs to run every 5 mins cd /home/foldername/public_html && /usr/local/bin/php wp-cron.php >/dev/null 2>&1 now after i made this post i did add this in cron jobs in cpanel which works set for every 1 min cd /home/folder name goes here/public_html && /usr/local/bin/php wp-cli.phar action-scheduler run >/dev/null 2>&1 i did have the batch sizes changed before all that with 2 ques and batch of 100 then 150 (no real change on resources) the reason for the 2 is cause 8 cores on the server but its got 2 light speed workers. i have had to use this in terminal to clear majority of it after CD in its php wp-cli.phar action-scheduler run –batches=10 –force the 10 was cause last time i used it was about 2000 jobs behind after that i implemented the cron for every 1 min its been behaving since i normally see it at 900 with only 180 past due which is weird cause those 180 are future jobs (i.e sales falls away after x date)

Andy – a11n 2026-06-16T11:56:00+00:00

Thanks for the follow-up and for sharing the details of your cron configuration. It sounds like things are in much better shape now. To clarify, your original server cron running wp-cron.php every 5 minutes was already handling standard WordPress scheduled events correctly. The piece that was missing was a dedicated cron for Action Scheduler’s WP-CLI queue runner, and adding that at a one minute interval is the right approach for a store of your size. With 60,000+ products and Google for WooCommerce syncing each one through the queue, having a WP-CLI runner continuously draining actions is exactly how high volume stores are meant to operate. The Action Scheduler guide on Background Processing at Scale goes into more detail on why WP-CLI is the recommended approach once a store outgrows the default WP-Cron runner. About the ~180 past due actions you mentioned, that count is completely normal. Some of those are actions that become due between cron runs, since there is always a small window between each execution. Others, as you noted, are tied to scheduled WooCommerce events like sale end dates that have not reached their trigger time yet. The Action Scheduler FAQ confirms that having some past due actions is expected behavior. A count of 180 on a store with your volume is healthy. One thing worth keeping in mind for ongoing maintenance is the wp action-scheduler clean command. Running it periodically will prune old completed and cancelled actions from the database, keeping the actionscheduler_actions table lean over time. That should help with the database size and RAM concerns you mentioned earlier. The full set of options for the clean command is documented on the Action Scheduler WP-CLI page . We are glad we could help get this sorted out. If you have a moment, we would really appreciate it if you could leave a review on the Action Scheduler reviews page .

techguysa 2026-06-16T12:02:00+00:00

its just weird that it couldnt keep up with everything seems via wordpress there are some restrictions but the method i got now seems to be better servers ram is holding steady as well without it would hang / freeze and ram would build up close to OOM if not OOM on MariaDB (cause everything is waiting in que) unless im pushing the limits here