Task scheduler - Windows 2019 - Indefinitly task not running

Eric C 126

Hi,

This is not a qestion, this is an answer ! I hope it could help because I spent hours.

On Windows server 2019, if you have a task to repeat let say every 5 minutes indefinitly, You have to trigger it this way :

On a schedule
One time
Advanced settings / repeat tasks every xxx minutes for a duration Indefinitly.

On a schedule
Daily
Advanced settings / repeat tasks every xxx minutes for a duration 1 Day.

On Windows server 2012, 2008, I used to select "Daily" instead of "One time" for an indefintly period, but if you do so in Windows 2019 Task scheduler, the task will never run, when the time is come it just schedule the next time without running any program.

It sounds finally logic but you have no information about why the task is not running (and there is not entry log in the task scheduler history), and the next run time is however exact, but nothing happens

Regards,

Eric

I A 31 Reputation points

2021-09-03T00:09:35.243+00:00

Thank you!!! Great find. Had the same issue on a new 2019 Server and it was driving me crazy.
Erkson, Toby 1 Reputation point

2021-09-09T17:14:31.107+00:00

OMG! Thank you!!! So frustrating when MS mixes things up just for the sake of doing so. After 8 years of no issues, when I would need to edit a task it would then suddenly not work in 2019!?! Now I can work-around this bug. Thanks again :-)
Barny Bbbb 11 Reputation points

2021-11-03T16:56:23.4+00:00

Unfortunately for us Server 2019 is the straw that broke the camel's back. We use scheduled tasks and while in 2016 you had to use 'run missed tasks' to get them to run reliably, on 2019 they do not work after a summer time change, period. This means i can not afford to go on holiday during a summer time change, hence we will not be rolling out any more server 2019 machines and we will not be migrating to any later microsoft server operating systems. We will get our services to work on debian whatever the cost.
Janes, Robert 1 Reputation point

2021-11-23T23:05:56.893+00:00

same here embarassed to tell you how long I fought this and to the ends I was searching and Troubleshooting
Yoann 1 Reputation point

2021-11-30T09:14:47.15+00:00

Thanks a lot for the sharing ! Really helpfull, it saved me a lot of time I think !
Ed 6 Reputation points

2022-01-13T13:26:49.337+00:00

Now that you have identified the problem and the solution, maybe it can be fixed by MS

This is particularly bad as the Daily every 5 indefinitely works some of the time. Randomly servers start to not run the schedule after reboots or patch nights. One trick I was using was to go out and set the start date to the current date, it sometimes starts to work again until a patch night and then they start "failing" again at random. Your trick of moving to Once worked like a charm - I hope it sticks. This has been a real pain in the neck and I am tired of dealing with it every month or two on a couple of servers.

thanks and crossing fingers - Ed
chris0901 1 Reputation point

2022-02-17T01:36:51.043+00:00

Thanks, Eric - I had the same issue with Task Scheduler on Windows 10. Took me hours to figure out the solution thanks to your findings. And I still can't see the logic in the settings. Wonder why MS products are always so poor in help and logging.

Keywords:
If Windows Task scheduler doesn't start jobs, change trigger settings from daily/weekly/monthly to "One time" and specify repetitions.
Auf Deutsch: Wenn die Windows Aufgabenplanung Aufgaben nicht ausführt, ändern Sie die Trigger-Einstellungen von "Täglich", "Wöchentlich" oder "Monatlich" auf "Einmal" und geben Sie Wiederholungen an.

Regards, Chris
Bidder 1 Reputation point

2022-03-10T15:47:08.927+00:00

Thank you so much. This is the same behavior I have been seeing on the Win 10 task scheduler.

The previous logic of having a task scheduled daily but running indefinitely always seemed like a contradiction. However, it's been that way as far back as I can recall, since XP maybe.

The thing that is really irksome is that the change in logic was not communicated well, if at all, and has resulted in many wasted hours.
Vaibhav Joon 1 Reputation point

2022-06-21T06:30:39.057+00:00

WOW Great Help, Thanks a lot :)
Cory Rogers 1 Reputation point

2022-08-18T20:32:36.637+00:00

This was killing me. The weird thing is that it worked at first and didn't stop working until I stopped it. But then it randomly worked again for a bit and then stopped. I was certain it was a permissions issue with the account I was using until I switched back to the account it worked with initially. Thanks!
Hudgins, Paul 1 Reputation point

2022-09-28T15:06:42.737+00:00

Thank you! Just had to move some scripts over from some decomm'ed servers on 2012 and I was stuck trying to figure out why the task wouldn't trigger.
Aren Tomanian 0 Reputation points

2023-03-29T21:31:44.75+00:00

This is the same experience for windows 10 22H2, thank you so much
Steven Lantz 0 Reputation points

2023-04-11T19:28:45.3066667+00:00

Thank you, this post is still giving out good vibes 2 years later. I thought I was losing my mind migrating these jobs to Server 2019. Much thanks!
Nathaniel Hansen 6 Reputation points

2023-04-26T13:56:22.5366667+00:00

Kudos Eric! After applying your guide and testing both scenarios on Server 2019 and Windows 10 (20H2), I couldn’t fault the issue anymore.
Cemal 0 Reputation points

2023-05-10T17:59:49.7033333+00:00

I am so grateful! Thanks a lot.
Jeff Heilman 0 Reputation points

2023-05-26T18:22:13.2033333+00:00

I'm late to the game but thanks so much for posting this. I've been screwing around with this for a day and a half before I stumbled on this.
Rampír Jiří 0 Reputation points

2023-09-21T11:46:44.1733333+00:00

Thank you!!!
justatechguy-9085 0 Reputation points

2023-10-13T15:47:04.91+00:00

Until the October 2023 Patches for Windows Server 2019 both methods shown by Eric have been working for us. However after applying the 2023/10 Patches for Windows Server 2019 only the first variant with "one time" does still work. The other where you set it as "daily" is not working anymore when selecting "Advanced settings / repeat tasks every xxx minutes for a duration 1 Day". It just keeps re-scheduling the task without actualy executing it...

Over 3 Years MSFT does now know about this and still there is no fix and it even gets more worse. If it wouldn't be MSFT I would be suprised...
Martijn 0 Reputation points

2023-10-20T10:49:46.1+00:00

Thank you so much! We had the same issue after a migration to Server 2022. Everything worked as long as you don't touch it. Disabled one task, enabled the day after, never ran again. After hours searching found your topic and now with the "One Time" trick it works again!

Other tasks that worked had a lot of warnings of "double" triggers. Looks like this also solved it!

14 answers

Karlie Weng 13,951 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2021-03-15T03:07:21.987+00:00

Hi Eric @Eric C

Thanks for sharing with us !

I truly appreciate your efforts on working this issue. I believe this knowledge must can help a lot of others.

Microsoft Tech Community would also be a great platform to share and learn. We could post there as well. :)

Best Regards
Karlie

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Karlie Weng 13,951 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2021-03-24T05:39:09.027+00:00

Did you enable the operational log ?
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Eric C 126 Reputation points

2021-03-24T10:57:14.433+00:00

Hi,

Thanks for the follow up.

I enabled the log, and there was nothing in it. The conclusion was tasks were not running, and I have to understand why ;-)

Best regards.

Eric
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Karlie Weng 13,951 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2021-03-29T02:20:17.663+00:00

Do you have another Windows server 2019, is it the same result？
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Oleksii Skirko 26 Reputation points

2021-06-29T07:42:55.037+00:00

Guys, any update on it?
I confirm this issue on my Windows 10 20H2. I create a scheduled task via GPO and set Trigger as Daily, repeat Every 1 hour indefinitely - and have the same issue - the task doesn't run:
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Eric C 126 Reputation points

2021-06-29T09:51:55.433+00:00

Hi,

Try to change for a duration of : "Indefinitely" to "1 Day". See my first post which is a workaround for this "problem".

Regards,

Eric.
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Oleksii Skirko 26 Reputation points

2021-06-29T11:08:09.603+00:00

Hi, thank you for your reply.
In Group Policy editor, I cannot change duration for Scheduler. It allows me ti choose only 1 day, 12 hours etc.
This is simple combobox without ability to edit..

M T 11 Reputation points

2021-09-24T10:20:27.707+00:00

I can confirm this as a working fix for me.

I had set the task on Windows 10 to repeat every 5 minutes. When "Duration" was "Indefinitely", it never repeated after 1st run. But when "Duration" was set to "1 Day", it was able to execute every 5 mins.

Oleksii Skirko 1 Reputation point

2021-09-24T10:34:30.467+00:00

Finally I found a workaround for my GPO:
I pointed a particular duration in Scheduled Task XML (it may be as long as you want). After that, scheduled tasks started running

Sandra Orrego 1 Reputation point

2022-01-19T17:59:03.123+00:00

It's wor for me. Thank you so much

ww niu 0 Reputation points

2024-01-24T05:46:17.11+00:00

Do right, Thank you so much
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