Verification.
WHY VERIFY
A cron job that is not running produces no error. Things simply do not happen.
THE SIMPLEST TEST FOR WORDPRESS
Schedule a post for a few minutes ahead.
If it publishes, cron is working. If it sits as missed schedule, it is not.
WHAT ELSE INDICATES A PROBLEM
Backup plugins reporting no recent backup Updates never applying WooCommerce actions stuck as pending Email queues not sending
USING A PLUGIN
Cron viewer plugins list scheduled events and when they last ran.
Useful for seeing what is queued and what is overdue.
CHECKING THE CRON OUTPUT
If you configured the job to email output, that confirms it ran.
Useful initially, and turn it off afterwards or you receive mail every fifteen minutes.
FOR NON-WORDPRESS APPLICATIONS
Check whatever the task produces: a file, a log entry, a database record.
WHAT TO DO IF IT IS NOT RUNNING
Check the command path is correct Check the schedule Check the error log
