Incompatible Hosts with the MailPoet Task Scheduler
To work properly, the newsletter task scheduler needs to be triggered by an event to run continuously and send all the emails that are scheduled to be sent in our sending queue. We offer two options to do that by going to MailPoet's Settings > Advanced tab:
You can follow this guide to set your cron job: Setting the Server Side Cron (Linux Cron)
If the task scheduler connection is not working and your emails are not being sent as expected, please follow these instructions to troubleshoot the issue.
MailPoet's own script
This is no longer available for 3.89.0 version or higher. This used to be an option for versions older than 3.89.0. If you're using an updated version of the MailPoet plugin, the MailPoet's own script is no longer available in the plugin's settings. If you had this option selected, once you update the plugin it will be automatically switched to the "Visitors to your website" option.
Unfortunately, the following hosts will disable your website if you're using the MailPoet's own script option:
- SiteGround
- Amazon EC2
Why does this happen?
Because MailPoet's own task scheduler script runs non-stop in the background of your website. Although it's not CPU intensive, some hosts will dislike its long CPU cycles and have your website temporarily disabled. CPU time or CPU usage is the amount of time (in seconds) a computer program uses in processing CPU instructions.
According to SiteGround, for example, no customer is allowed to use more than 20000 CPU seconds for a day and more than 2000 CPU seconds for an hour of the day.
What to do?
- If your hosting provider restricts daily/weekly CPU usage, we suggest that you try using the "Visitors to your website" option instead.
- If you have already tried it and the problem persists or your website is hosted on SiteGround or Amazon EC2, we recommend selecting the "Server side cron (Linux cron)" option.