Laravel non-overlapping scheduled job not executing - laravel

Question

I have a Laravel Scheduled job which is defined in Kernel.php like so
$schedule->call('\App\Http\Controllers\ScheduleController#processQueuedMessages')
->everyFiveMinutes()
->name('process_queued_messages')
->withoutOverlapping();
During development, my job threw an exception due to a syntax error. I corrected the error and tried executing it again; but for some reason it won't.
I tried artisan down and then artisan up. I also tried restarting the server instance. But nothing would help. The job just didn't get executed (there was no exception either).
I realize that the problem is due to ->withoutOverlapping(). Somehow, Laravel scheduler is thinking that the job is already running and hence is not executing it again.

Answer 1

I found the solution by looking at the vendor code.
Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\CallbackEvent.php
It creates a file in local storage with the name schedule-*.
public function withoutOverlapping()
{
if ( ! isset($this->description))
{
throw new LogicException(
"A scheduled event name is required to prevent overlapping. Use the 'name' method before 'withoutOverlapping'."
);
}
return $this->skip(function()
{
return file_exists($this->mutexPath());
});
}
protected function mutexPath()
{
return storage_path().'/framework/schedule-'.md5($this->description);
}
Deleting the file schedule-* at storage/framework resolved the issue.

Answer 2

To anyone reading this, deleting the schedule files yourself, is not the right way to go. You need to specify - the lock time - based on which, withoutOverlapping prevents further tasks from running.
As cited in Laravel - Task Scheduling
If needed, you may specify how many minutes must pass before the "without overlapping" lock expires. By default, the lock will expire after 24 hours:
Your problem originates due to the fact that withoutOverlapping applies a default lock for 24 hours. So you had to wait for 24 hours before similar tasks are accepted. Simply adjust the lock time based on your needs by doing:
$schedule->command('emails:send')->withoutOverlapping(10); // where 10 refers to minutes

Answer 3

This did the trick for me:
php artisan cache:clear

Answer 4

I had this problem too. There's not a proper solution for this but a workaround will solve the issue.
Go to storage/framework Folder of your project and delete all the schedule-*********** files.
And then again try to run the cron. It will even if you use withoutOverlapping() function.
Hope this works for you. Ask if any doubt.

Answer 5

Since laravel 8.x you can use specific command to clear mutex files, for example if task stucks because of a server reboot while task were executing
the problem of clear:cache is that this command clear cache for the entire application and this command just clears mutex-files
php artisan schedule:clear-cache

Answer 6

This happened to us this week and we think we figured out the cause. Our crons run off one of our production server's site folder. Our deploy process involves having a second folder where we do deploy/build, and then do a hot folder swap at the end. Since withoutOverlapping() likely has to update a line in the schedule-* files when the process is done, the folder might be swapped mid job and the cron is unable to successfully mark the job as having been finished in the correct schedule-* file, so it thinks it's still running/stuck.
It was a rare occurrence but we're going to add a command to clear out these files after a deploy so it doesn't happen again.