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fix: prevent cron from permanently dying after handler errors#16219

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AlessioGr merged 4 commits intomainfrom
fix/cron-error-handling
Apr 14, 2026
Merged

fix: prevent cron from permanently dying after handler errors#16219
AlessioGr merged 4 commits intomainfrom
fix/cron-error-handling

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@AlessioGr AlessioGr commented Apr 9, 2026

When any error occurs during a cron job, the cron stops firing permanently and never recovers until the process is restarted.

This happens because of a bug in croner v9 combined with missing error handling in the cron setup. Croner's protect: true option sets an internal blocking flag before running the handler and only clears it after the handler completes. In v9, if the handler throws, the flag is never cleared because there's no try/finally around it. Every future cron sees blocking = true and skips, so the cron is dead forever.

Even without the croner bug, the error from the handler was propagating as an unhandled promise, which can crash the process.

One example where this affected us was if there is a db error while running the job. Even if that error is temporary and would be resolved during the next run, the cron job would no longer run until the process is restarted.

Two changes fix this:

  • Bumped croner from v9 to v10, which wraps the handler in try/finally so the blocking flag is always cleared regardless of whether the handler throws. This was a confirmed bug in v9

  • Added the catch option to the Cron constructor, which tells croner to catch handler errors and pass them to a callback instead of letting them escape as unhandled rejections. The callback logs the error via payload.logger.error so it's visible in application logs.


Comment thread test/queues/int.spec.ts
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github-actions Bot commented Apr 9, 2026

📦 esbuild Bundle Analysis for payload

This analysis was generated by esbuild-bundle-analyzer. 🤖

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Details

Next to the size is how much the size has increased or decreased compared with the base branch of this PR.

  • ‼️: Size increased by 20% or more. Special attention should be given to this.
  • ⚠️: Size increased in acceptable range (lower than 20%).
  • ✅: No change or even downsized.
  • 🗑️: The out file is deleted: not found in base branch.
  • 🆕: The out file is newly found: will be added to base branch.

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One question about the updated croner major version.

Comment thread packages/payload/package.json
@AlessioGr AlessioGr enabled auto-merge (squash) April 9, 2026 22:23
@AlessioGr AlessioGr requested a review from DanRibbens April 9, 2026 22:23
@AlessioGr AlessioGr merged commit c5e0e02 into main Apr 14, 2026
166 checks passed
@AlessioGr AlessioGr deleted the fix/cron-error-handling branch April 14, 2026 16:45
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🚀 This is included in version v3.83.0

milamer pushed a commit to milamer/payload that referenced this pull request Apr 20, 2026
…dcms#16219)

When any error occurs during a cron job, the cron stops firing
permanently and never recovers until the process is restarted.

This happens because of a bug in croner v9 combined with missing error
handling in the cron setup. Croner's `protect: true` option sets an
internal `blocking` flag before running the handler and only clears it
after the handler completes. In v9, if the handler throws, the flag is
never cleared because there's no `try/finally` around it. Every future
cron sees `blocking = true` and skips, so the cron is dead forever.

Even without the croner bug, the error from the handler was propagating
as an unhandled promise, which can crash the process.

One example where this affected us was if there is a db error while
running the job. Even if that error is temporary and would be resolved
during the next run, the cron job would no longer run until the process
is restarted.

## Two changes fix this:

- Bumped croner from v9 to v10, which wraps the handler in `try/finally`
so the `blocking` flag is always cleared regardless of whether the
handler throws. This was a confirmed bug in v9

- Added the `catch` option to the Cron constructor, which tells croner
to catch handler errors and pass them to a callback instead of letting
them escape as unhandled rejections. The callback logs the error via
`payload.logger.error` so it's visible in application logs.


---
- To see the specific tasks where the Asana app for GitHub is being
used, see below:
  - https://app.asana.com/0/0/1213983836266032
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