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Background jobs not running

Aivie runs three jobs on a schedule: the monthly ideas, the nightly datasource crawl and the daily AI connection check. They are described under Background jobs, and Scheduled jobs lists their schedules. Every job writes to the Umbraco log when it skips a run, so the log is the place to start. A job needs no extra user or key.

The monthly ideas job made nothing and the log says it is switched off​

The log has this warning at the time of the run: IdeaGeneratorJob is switched off (Aivie:Ideas:JobEnabled = false); no ideas are made.

Cause​

The setting Monthly idea job on is off. That is the intended state on a staging or test copy of a live site. It is also what you get when you cloned a database from a site where the job was switched off, because a value saved on the Settings tab is stored in the database and wins over your configuration.

Fix​

  1. Open Configuration → Setup, and choose the tab Settings.
  2. In the group Idea generator, switch on Monthly idea job on.
  3. Press Save.

You can also remove Aivie:Ideas:JobEnabled from your configuration, or set it to true. The key and its default are in the configuration keys. The Auto generate button works whether or not the job is on.

A job does not run and the log names the licence​

The log has a warning like IdeaGeneratorJob does not run: the license is in state followed by a status. The same line exists for the other jobs, with CompetitorsJob for the datasource crawl and AiStatusJob for the AI connection check. The rest of the line holds the licence message, which can be in Dutch.

Cause​

The licence does not allow Aivie to create anything. That is the case for the statuses No licence, Expired, Revoked, Different domain and Invalid, and when the licence cannot be read. The jobs create content and make AI calls without anyone watching, so they stop first. See Licence statuses.

On a trial there is a second reason. A job has no web request, so Aivie cannot see that the site runs on a local host, and the trial does not apply to it. Scheduled jobs therefore do not run on a site that only has a trial. On a site with a licence, Aivie uses the domain of the licence, or the last host name a visitor used.

Fix​

  • Solve the licence first. The messages and their fixes are on Licence messages. The next scheduled run works again.
  • On a trial, press Auto generate on the tab Clusters instead. That button is not held back by the host check. See Your first ideas.

The job ran, but no ideas were made​

At the Information level the log has either IdeaGeneratorJob done: followed by the number of ideas, or one of the lines below. A site that only logs warnings and errors shows the warnings only.

Cause​

Log lineMeaning
IdeaGeneratorJob: no cluster is active this month, nothing to do.No idea group is active this month. An idea group has a start date, and optionally an end date.
IdeaGeneratorJob did not run: no ideas left this monthThe ideas allowance of your package for this month is used up. The line adds how many were used of how many.
IdeaGeneratorJob did not run: the current subscription has no ideas per month.The package of the site includes no ideas.

Fix​

Check the idea groups under Ideas → Clusters, and the allowance on the Subscription screen. See Limits reached. When the job did make ideas, but fewer than you expected, see Fewer ideas than expected.

The job stopped because the site was shutting down​

The log has this warning: IdeaGeneratorJob stopped because the site is shutting down. Ideas made so far are in the idea list; the next run continues from the remaining allowance.

Cause​

The site was stopped or recycled during the run. A run of several groups takes minutes.

Fix​

Nothing is lost. The ideas that were made are in the idea list and counted. Press Auto generate to make the rest, or wait for the next run. Avoid restarts around the time of the run.

A job runs at the wrong time, or not at all​

Cause​

The schedule is not what you think it is. Check these in order:

  • All times are UTC. 0 2 1 * * is 02:00 UTC, not 02:00 in your own time zone.
  • The Settings tab wins. When the schedule of the ideas job or of the crawl is set on the Settings tab with a frequency other than Cron, the key CronExpression is not used.
  • An invalid cron expression is ignored. The job runs on its default schedule, and the log has a warning that starts with the key, for example Aivie:Ideas:CronExpression does not contain a valid cron expression.
  • The site was not running at that moment. The jobs run inside your site.
  • More than one server: the crawl and the connection check run on the scheduling server only.

Fix​

Open the Settings tab and look at the sentence next to Change in the group Idea generator or Datasources. It states the schedule in words. Change it, as described under Schedule. A change takes effect within a minute. The keys are in Scheduled jobs.