Five minutes of setup here prevents the most common support question: “why didn’t it run?”
Requirements #
| Requirement | Notes |
|---|---|
| Gravity Forms | Required. The plugin is a Gravity Forms add-on and shows an admin notice if Gravity Forms is missing or inactive. |
| PHP 8.0 or newer | Enforced by the plugin. |
| A working WordPress cron | Essential. See below — this is the one that bites. |
| A named site timezone | Strongly recommended so schedules follow daylight-saving changes. |
| GP Populate Anything | Optional. Only needed if you want lookups re-evaluated on every run. |
The Cron Requirement (Read This One) #
The plugin asks WordPress to run a background check every 15 minutes. Scheduling that request is easy; actually running it depends on your host.
Three things have to be true:
- WordPress is invoked frequently enough — by visitors, or by a server-side cron.
- Its cron system is not disabled.
- The check completes and records a heartbeat.
Why “my cron works” isn’t enough #
A daily server cron cannot satisfy a 15-minute interval. Neither does “our other scheduled task runs fine” — that task might be daily too.
The plugin therefore reports three separate numbers in Queue and Settings:
| Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Requested interval | How often the plugin wants to run (900 seconds by default). |
| Registered interval | What WordPress actually has on its schedule. |
| Last heartbeat | When PHP last finished a check. This is the only real proof. |
A heartbeat older than twice the requested interval is flagged as late. A brand-new installation gets a two-interval grace period.
Recommended host setup #
Ask your host (or your systems team) to invoke WordPress cron every 5 to 15 minutes:
*/10 * * * * cd /path/to/site && php wp-cron.php > /dev/null 2>&1Running that every minute is harmless — it simply executes whatever events are due, and this plugin’s event is only due every 15 minutes.
Careful: opening
wp-cron.phpin a browser and getting an HTTP 200 proves WordPress responded. It does not prove this plugin’s worker ran, because the worker only runs when its own event is due.
Set Your Timezone Properly #
Go to Settings → General → Timezone in WordPress.
- Choose a city (for example
New York, which storesAmerica/New_York). - Avoid a raw UTC offset such as
UTC-5.
A named timezone follows daylight saving automatically, so an 11:00 schedule stays at 11:00 all year. A fixed offset cannot do that — an 11:00 schedule silently becomes 10:00 or 12:00 for half the year.
The feed editor links straight to this setting when it notices the site is using an offset.
Decide Who Can Manage Schedules #
Every operational button — run, retry, pause, resume, cancel, change date — requires the capability:
recurring_form_submissions_manage_resubmissionsAdministrators receive it automatically. To let an editor or a custom role operate schedules, grant that capability with your role editor of choice.
It also governs the shortcodes: a user without it sees nothing at all from [rfsfgf_overview] or [rfsfgf_entry_widget], not merely a version without buttons.
Expectations Worth Setting Up Front #
- Submissions run a little late, by design. A healthy worker starts an occurrence between its target and roughly 15 minutes afterwards. If you need second-level precision, this is not the right tool.
- A schedule is a snapshot. Editing a feed does not move schedules that are already running.
- The first occurrence is a full interval away. A daily feed saved at 01:14 with a run time of 01:20 starts tomorrow at 01:20 — not six minutes from now.
- Nothing is backfilled. Downtime never produces a burst of submissions.
A Five-Point Pre-Flight Check #
Before you rely on a schedule in production:
- Site timezone is a named city, not an offset.
- Server cron invokes WordPress at least every 15 minutes.
- GravityOps → Recurring Submissions → Settings shows a healthy worker with a recent heartbeat.
- An Admin Email is set, so failures reach a person.
- You have run one series end-to-end with Run Next Submission Now and inspected the child entry it created.
