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Frequently Asked Questions

    An FAQ to address questions regarding the Control Hours WordPress plugin.

    What if my end time is earlier than my start time?

    That’s okay! Crontrol Hours is smart enough to know that your window is running overnight into the next day.

    How does it choose when to reschedule a CRON event?

    It picks a random time within your chosen start and end times and pushes it back.

    What timezone is used for setting start and end times?

    It uses the WordPress website’s timezone set in Settings > General

    Do I have to configure anything after installing and activating this plugin?

    Nope! The default window is set from 20:00 to 04:00 (or 8pm to 4am). Upon activation, the plugin creates its own daily CRON event scheduled for midnight in your website’s timezone (defined in Settings > General) to check and fix all of the others to run within that window. So you can safely set it and forget it!

    How do I choose different hours to restrict my events?

    Check out the tutorial here that explains everything on the Settings page.

    How do I find out what CRON schedules my WordPress website has?

    This is very easy with the Crontrol Hours WordPress plugin! Check out the tutorial here.

    How do I find out what CRON hooks my WordPress website has?

    This is very easy to do with the Crontrol Hours WordPress plugin! Check out the tutorial here.

    Does this work on WordPress multisite/network installations?

    Yes! Each site in the multisite’s network will get their own configuration settings page so they can be customized. However, if you want to ensure all sites use the same settings, you can override them with constant variables set in the wp-config.php file like this:

    /** Crontrol Hours */ define('CRONTROL_HOURS_INTERVALS', 'twicedaily,daily,weekly,monthly'); // Comma separated list of recurring intervals to check for
define('CRONTROL_HOURS_FORCE_DAILY', '1'); // Sets "Force Daily" to true define('CRONTROL_HOURS_RESTRICT_FREQUENT', '1'); // Sets "Restrict Frequent" to true
define('CRONTROL_HOURS_START_TIME', '23:00'); // Sets the start time define('CRONTROL_HOURS_END_TIME', '05:00'); // Sets the end time 
define('CRONTROL_HOURS_EXCLUDE', 'wordfence_daily_cron,otter_montly_scheduled_events'); // Comma separated list of hooks to exclude from being changed

    It’s also important to point out that each site in the network will need it’s own wp-cron.php pinged whether you set it up via server tasks or with Cron-Job.org.

    I manage a lot of WordPress websites with custom configurations, is there an easy way to edit these settings without logging in?

    Yes! I feel you there. You can set the following constant variables in your WordPress installation’s wp-config.php file.

    /** Crontrol Hours */
define('CRONTROL_HOURS_INTERVALS', 'twicedaily,daily,weekly,monthly'); // Comma separated list of recurring intervals to check for
define('CRONTROL_HOURS_FORCE_DAILY', '1'); // Sets "Force Daily" to true define('CRONTROL_HOURS_RESTRICT_FREQUENT', '1'); // Sets "Restrict Frequent" to true
define('CRONTROL_HOURS_START_TIME', '23:00'); // Sets the start time define('CRONTROL_HOURS_END_TIME', '05:00'); // Sets the end time 
define('CRONTROL_HOURS_EXCLUDE', 'wordfence_daily_cron,otter_montly_scheduled_events'); // Comma separated list of hooks to exclude from being changed

    Keep in mind that if you’re using this on a multisite installation of WordPress, these settings will override all settings for the subsites on the network.