Cron jobs not getting triggered as intended.

[radzvirima]

Why are you starting this discussion?

Bug

What GitHub Actions topic or product is this about?

Schedule & Cron Jobs

Discussion Details

1. Impacted repository: radzvirima/virima-website-monitor (private)

2. Workflow path and name: .github/workflows/monitor.yml — Website Monitor

3. Cron syntax in the workflow:

schedule:
  - cron: '30 3 * * *'    # 3:30 UTC = 9:00 AM IST
  - cron: '30 6 * * *'    # 6:30 UTC = 12:00 PM IST
  - cron: '30 12 * * *'   # 12:30 UTC = 6:00 PM IST

Additional context: Multiple commits have been pushed to the default branch (main) after adding/changing cron schedules. The workflow runs successfully via workflow_dispatch but scheduled triggers do not fire. We also tried disabling and re-enabling the workflow via the API. The workflow was created on March 23, 2026.

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[AmedeoPelliccia]

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[jannoguer]

Hey, your syntax and setup actually look perfect. Since you already confirmed it runs fine manually and it's on the main branch, you're likely hitting a known quirk with GitHub's shared runner queue.

Because everyone schedules their cron jobs exactly on the hour or half-hour (like your :30 marks), the global queue gets completely overwhelmed and scheduled jobs often get delayed or dropped entirely. Try changing those minutes to a random number, like 17 or 43, to bypass the traffic jam.

Also, since this is a private repo, just do a quick check on your GitHub billing settings. If you've accidentally used up your free Actions minutes for the month, scheduled workflows will just silently fail to trigger without giving you an error.

Hope that helps! If it solves the problem, feel free to mark this as the answer. It helps other people with the same issue find the fix faster.

jannoguer

[almagee16]

Also running into this from a private repo I just created. I saw online that people said I should be able to see a "Schedule" tab under my action, but that tab doesn't exist. I am able to manually run the job

[KS-jf]

My scheduled workflows (cron) are not being registered at all, too.
Even with correct YAML, new workflows, new repositories, and multiple pushes,
the “Next run” does not appear and the schedule never triggers.

Manual runs work normally.
This happens across multiple repositories in my account.
This repository was created over the past few days.

[wanderingbark]

I am also have the same issue on my public repository (just created this week). I even created a basic cron test scheduled for every 5 minutes but it never triggers.

1. Impacted repository: wanderingbark/Kitcheneinkimages
2. Workflow path and name: .github/workflows/crontest.yml
3. Code:

name: crontest

on:
workflow_dispatch:
schedule:
- cron: '*/5 * * * *' # Runs every 5 minutes for testing

jobs:
test-cron:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- run: echo "Cron job ran successfully!"

I am new at this but I've tried to follow all the advice I could find about all the settings and file/branch structure.

Any help would be appreciated.

[wanderingbark]

Just some additional information if it helps (I found it more confusing). Checking again just now, the cron job ran a total of 3 times in 10 hours, rather than the scheduled every 5 minutes.

[SimplyMeNow]

I too am having the same issue regardless of whether I make the repository private or public. All the basic tests are fine. I tried to even change the main branch to 'master' as was recommended by some over here. The script runs perfectly runs when manually triggered through workflow_dispatch, but the cron task is not being triggered at all. Here are my details

====

1. Impacted repository: https://github.com/SimplyMeNow/Hello-Test (currently set to public)

2. Workflow path and name: .github/workflows/main.yml

3. Cron syntax in the workflow:

name: Python Script Runner

on:
push:
branches: [ "master" ] # Runs whenever you upload new code
schedule:
- cron: '*/10 * * * *'
workflow_dispatch: # Adds a "Run now" button so you can test it

jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest

steps:
  - name: Checkout code
    uses: actions/checkout@v4

  - name: Set up Python
    uses: actions/setup-python@v5
    with:
      python-version: '3.10'

  - name: Install dependencies
    run: |
      python -m pip install --upgrade pip
      if [ -f requirements.txt ]; then pip install -r requirements.txt; fi

  - name: Run my script
    run: python my_script.py

[AmedeoPelliccia]

I too am having the same issue regardless of whether I make the repository private or public. All the basic tests are fine. I tried to even change the main branch to 'master' as was recommended by some over here. The script runs perfectly runs when manually triggered through workflow_dispatch, but the cron task is not being triggered at all. Here are my details

====

1. Impacted repository: https://github.com/SimplyMeNow/Hello-Test (currently set to public)

2. Workflow path and name: .github/workflows/main.yml

3. Cron syntax in the workflow:

name: Python Script Runner

on:

push:

branches: [ "master" ]  # Runs whenever you upload new code

schedule:

- cron: '*/10 * * * *'

workflow_dispatch: # Adds a "Run now" button so you can test it

jobs:

build:

runs-on: ubuntu-latest



steps:

  - name: Checkout code

    uses: actions/checkout@v4



  - name: Set up Python

    uses: actions/setup-python@v5

    with:

      python-version: '3.10'



  - name: Install dependencies

    run: |

      python -m pip install --upgrade pip

      if [ -f requirements.txt ]; then pip install -r requirements.txt; fi



  - name: Run my script

    run: python my_script.py

Main Better than Master, it is deontological good practice