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Cron Manager

 

What This Page Does

The Cron Manager lets you control all the automated background tasks that keep your site running smoothly. These tasks handle things like processing uploaded videos, sending emails, updating cam performer listings, renewing subscriptions, and more. From this single page, you can turn tasks on or off, adjust how often they run, and set up email alerts so you know right away if something goes wrong.

[Screenshot: cron-manager-full-overview]

How to Get Here

Navigate to Admin Panel > Settings > Cron Manager

Understanding the Page

When you open the Cron Manager, you will see a row of statistics at the top and five tabs below them.

Statistics Bar

At the top of the page, six cards give you a quick snapshot of your automated tasks:

Card What It Tells You
Total Tasks How many automated tasks your site manages
Enabled How many tasks are currently turned on and running
Disabled How many tasks are turned off
Critical Tasks Tasks that are essential for your site to work properly
Successes (24h) How many tasks completed successfully in the last 24 hours
Failures (24h) How many tasks failed in the last 24 hours (this turns red if any failed)

[Screenshot: cron-manager-stats-cards]

Tab Navigation

The page is organized into five tabs:

Tab What It Shows
Dashboard All tasks grouped by feature area, with quick on/off controls
All Tasks A searchable, filterable table of every task
Schedule View A visual timeline showing when tasks run throughout the day
Execution History A log of recent task activity so you can see what ran and whether it succeeded
Settings Email alert setup and global preferences

[Screenshot: cron-manager-tabs]

Common Tasks

How to Check if Everything Is Running Smoothly

  1. Open the Cron Manager page.
  2. Look at the Successes (24h) and Failures (24h) cards at the top.
  3. If Failures shows zero, your tasks are running well.
  4. If Failures shows a number greater than zero, click the Execution History tab to see what went wrong.

 

Tip: Make it a habit to check this page at least once a week to catch problems early.

 

How to Turn a Task On or Off

  1. Go to the Dashboard tab or the All Tasks tab.
  2. Find the task you want to change.
  3. Click the toggle switch next to the task name. Green means on, gray means off.
  4. The page reloads and a confirmation message appears.

 

Warning: Some tasks are marked as Critical with a red badge. Turning these off for a long time will cause serious problems. For example, turning off video processing means new videos will never appear on your site.

 

How to Turn On or Off an Entire Feature Group

Instead of toggling tasks one by one, you can control all tasks in a group at once.

  1. Go to the Dashboard tab.
  2. Find the group you want to change (for example, Live Cams or Video Processing).
  3. Click Enable All to turn on every task in that group, or Disable All to turn them all off.
  4. A confirmation message appears once the change is saved.

 

Tip: If you are not using a feature on your site (such as live cams or creator profiles), you can safely disable its entire task group. This saves server resources.

 

How to Change How Often a Task Runs

  1. Find the task you want to adjust on the Dashboard or All Tasks tab.
  2. Click the Configure button on that task.
  3. A settings window opens. Read the Impact Warning in the orange box -- it explains why the current schedule was chosen and what might happen if you change it.
  4. Select a new schedule from the Schedule dropdown. Options range from every minute to once a week.
  5. Click Save Changes.

 

Note: Each schedule option includes a short description that updates as you select it, so you can see exactly what the new timing means.

 

How to Reset a Task to Its Original Schedule

  1. Click the Configure button on the task.
  2. In the settings window, look for the Default Schedule line near the bottom.
  3. Click Reset to Default.
  4. Click Save Changes.

How to Set Up Email Alerts

Get notified by email when a task fails or takes too long.

  1. Click the Settings tab.
  2. Type your email address into the Alert Email Address field.
  3. Check the boxes for the alerts you want:
  • Send alert when a cron task fails -- You receive an email if any task encounters an error.
  • Send alert when a cron task times out -- You receive an email if any task takes longer than the allowed time.
  1. Set the Timeout Threshold to control how many seconds a task can run before it is considered too slow. The default is 300 seconds (5 minutes).
  2. Click Save Settings.

 

Tip: Set up email alerts before you run into problems. It is much better to be notified immediately than to discover days later that something stopped working.

 

[Screenshot: cron-manager-settings]

How to Review Recent Task Activity

  1. Click the Execution History tab.
  2. You will see a list of recent entries showing when tasks ran and whether they succeeded or failed.
  3. Each entry is color-coded:
  • Green (Success) -- The task completed normally.
  • Red (Error) -- The task failed. Read the message for details.
  • Yellow (Warning) -- Something unusual happened but the task still ran.
  • Blue (Info) -- General information about a task.
  1. Use this tab to verify that your tasks are running on schedule.

[Screenshot: cron-manager-execution-history]

How to See When Tasks Run Throughout the Day

  1. Click the Schedule View tab.
  2. You will see a visual timeline with hours across the top (0 through 23) and task names down the left side.
  3. Green blocks show the hours when a task runs.
  4. Only enabled tasks appear on this timeline.

 

Tip: Use this view to spot busy times. If many tasks run at the same hour, consider spreading them out so your server is not overloaded during a single time slot.

 

[Screenshot: cron-manager-schedule-timeline]

Understanding the Feature Groups

Your automated tasks are organized into nine groups. Here is what each group handles and why it matters for your site visitors.

Group What It Does What Happens If You Turn It Off
Video Processing Processes uploaded videos so they can be played on your site. Generates thumbnails, previews, and streaming files. New videos will not appear on your site. Uploads will sit unprocessed.
Storage & CDN Monitors your storage servers to make sure files are accessible. Broken storage servers will not be detected, which could cause missing videos or images for visitors.
Creator Features Processes creator post media, calculates creator earnings, and cleans up old files. Creator posts with images or videos will not process. Earnings dashboards will show outdated numbers.
Live Cams Updates cam performer listings, online status, and viewer counts. Cam performer pages will show outdated information. Online/offline status will be wrong.
Billing & Subscriptions Processes subscription renewals and sends renewal reminder emails. Subscriptions will not renew automatically. Users may lose access to paid content.
System Maintenance Sends queued emails, generates sitemaps, and performs routine cleanup. Password reset emails and notifications will not send. Your sitemap will become outdated.
Distributed Conversion Manages video conversion across multiple servers for faster processing. Videos waiting for remote conversion will queue up indefinitely.
yt-dlp Video Import Downloads videos from external sources and checks for new content automatically. Queued video downloads will stop. Automatic content monitoring will not run.
Streamlink Recording Records live streams automatically. Live stream recordings will not start or complete.
Warning: Turning off Video Processing, Billing & Subscriptions, or System Maintenance will have an immediate and noticeable impact on your site. Only disable these if you have a specific reason and plan to re-enable them quickly.

Understanding Feature Toggles

Some task groups are connected to your site's feature settings. If you have turned off a feature entirely (for example, you turned off live cams because you do not use them), the tasks in that group will automatically be skipped -- even if they show as enabled in the Cron Manager.

This means you do not need to manually disable tasks for features you are not using. Just turn off the feature in Feature Toggles and the related tasks stop on their own.

 

Note: If tasks show as enabled here but you notice they are not running, check that the related feature is turned on in Admin Panel > Settings > Feature Toggles.

 

Settings and Options

Schedule Options

When configuring a task, you can choose from these schedules:

Schedule What It Means
Every Minute Runs continuously, once per minute. Best for time-sensitive tasks.
Every 5 Minutes A good balance between speed and server resources.
Every 10 Minutes Good for tasks that do not need to run as frequently.
Every 15 Minutes Suitable for cleanup and retry tasks.
Every 30 Minutes Runs twice per hour.
Every Hour Runs once at the top of each hour.
Daily at 1:00 AM through Daily at 5:00 AM Runs once per day during low-traffic hours.
Daily at 9:00 AM Runs once per day during business hours.
Weekly (Sunday 3 AM) Runs once per week on Sunday morning.
Disabled The task will not run at all.
Warning: Changing a task from its default schedule can affect your site's performance or your visitors' experience. Always read the impact warning in the configuration window before making changes.

Tips for New Users

 

Tip:
  • Start with the default schedules. They have been chosen to work well for most sites.
  • Set up email alerts right away so you are notified if something breaks.
  • If you are not using a feature (like live cams or creator profiles), use Feature Toggles to turn it off rather than disabling individual tasks here. It is cleaner and easier to manage.
  • Check the Execution History tab weekly to make sure everything is running.
  • Use the Schedule View tab to make sure you are not overloading your server at any particular time of day.
  • Never leave critical tasks (Video Processing, Billing, Email) disabled for long periods.

 

Troubleshooting

Tasks are enabled but nothing seems to be happening

What you see: Tasks show as enabled with green toggles, but no new videos are processing, emails are not sending, or other automated work is not getting done.

How to fix it:

  1. Click the Execution History tab and check if there are any recent entries.
  2. If you see no entries at all, the master scheduler may not be set up. Contact your hosting provider or the person who installed ComusThumbz and ask them to verify that the scheduled task system is running.
  3. If you see entries that say a feature is disabled, go to Admin Panel > Settings > Feature Toggles and make sure the relevant feature is turned on.

 

The Execution History tab says "No execution logs found"

What you see: The Execution History tab is empty with a message that no logs were found.

How to fix it:

  1. This usually means the background scheduler has not run yet or is not set up.
  2. Contact your hosting provider or system administrator and ask them to confirm that the background task scheduler is configured and running.

 

I set up email alerts but I am not receiving them

What you see: Tasks are failing (the Failures card shows a number), but you are not getting any emails.

How to fix it:

  1. Go to the Settings tab and double-check that your email address is entered correctly.
  2. Make sure the alert checkboxes are checked.
  3. Check your spam or junk folder.
  4. If you still do not receive alerts, contact your hosting provider -- the server's email system may need to be configured.

 

I accidentally disabled a critical task

What you see: You turned off a task and now something on your site is not working (videos not processing, emails not sending, etc.).

How to fix it:

  1. Go to the Dashboard tab.
  2. Find the task you disabled and click its toggle switch to turn it back on.
  3. The task will resume on its next scheduled run. Most tasks run every few minutes, so the fix should take effect quickly.

 

 

Success: Turning a task back on takes effect immediately. You do not need to do anything else -- the task will pick up where it left off on its next scheduled run.

 

Page When to Use It
Feature Toggles Turn entire site features on or off. This automatically affects the related background tasks.
Video Processor Settings Adjust how videos are processed (quality, formats, etc.).
Conversion Servers Set up and manage remote servers for faster video processing.
Storage Servers Configure where your files are stored and served from.

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