Hi @savingpatterns,
Thanks for the detailed info. The scheduled actions you listed are standard WooCommerce background tasks and don’t look abnormal on their own.
Since you’re currently locked out of wp-admin, could you check with your host and share:
- Which process or URL they’re seeing spike CPU (for example
wp-cron.php or admin-ajax.php)
- Whether there’s a server cron hitting WordPress very frequently
That information will help confirm whether this is actually a WooCommerce task looping or something server-level triggering it.
Once you regain dashboard access, we can also review Scheduled Actions to pinpoint the exact cause.
Thank you for the reply. I think it’s something in index.php they send me this (slightly edited for security) as if it means something to me lol.
username 3874150 59.0 0.7 1021324 245244 ? Rs 19:57 1:46 lsphp:my/directory/onepatternatatime.ca/index.php
username 3874213 56.4 0.7 1015768 242012 ? Rs 19:57 1:37 lsphp:my/directory/onepatternatatime.ca/index.php
username 3874214 54.6 0.7 1013988 240948 ? Rs 19:57 1:34 lsphp:my/directory/onepatternatatime.ca/index.php
usrname 3874252 54.8 0.7 1016276 242460 ? Rs 19:57 1:32 lsphp:my/directory/onepatternatatime.ca/index.php
username 3874253 55.2 0.7 1021024 244796 ? Rs 19:57 1:32 lsphp:my/directory/onepatternatatime.ca/index.php
My dumb guess is its running something every few seconds? My main page has products on it.
Hi @savingpatterns,
Thanks for sharing. I can see you’re dealing with a frustrating situation with high CPU usage and being locked out of your WordPress admin.
The process information your host shared shows multiple PHP processes running your site’s index.php file simultaneously, which is indeed causing the CPU spike. This typically happens when WordPress cron jobs are triggering too frequently or getting stuck in loops.
Since you can’t access wp-admin, here are a few things you can check through cPanel:
- Look for a file called
.htaccess in your site’s root directory and check if there are any unusual redirect rules
- In cPanel, check if there are any server-level cron jobs set up that might be hitting your WordPress site too frequently
- Check your site’s error logs in cPanel for any PHP errors that might be causing processes to hang
You could also temporarily disable WordPress cron by adding define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true); to your wp-config.php file through cPanel’s File Manager. This would stop all scheduled tasks until you can regain admin access.
I hope that helps. Let us know if you need anything else.
Thank you for the helpful reply.
1. I will delete my htaccess and see if another regeneration fixes it (I’ve done one fairly recently, the old one being from Jan 24th looks identical to the current one)
2. The only redirect I have set through cpanel under domains is a 301 when I moved from a .com to .ca. Is that the redirect section you are talking about?
3. Under cpanel’s “Errors” is nothing but 403 errors – I can’t see back more than 2 minutes of errors. The last one is:
14:14:55.823361 [INFO] [1105805] [T0] [127.0.0.1:51114>2a03:2880:f800:20::#APVH_domain:443] File not found [/domain/403.shtml], has been hit 13 times per second, shortcut to 404. – Am I right this is probably why I can’t login and something to do with them killing the site? I haven’t tried to login today yet there are errors. Or is someone trying to hack me? I ran my wordfence scan recently after finding a oddly named cookie that turned out to be from my payment plugin.
4. I have tried disabling the cron but my host would not tell me if that changed anything. It’s currently enabled again. I’ll turn it off again.
None of this sounds like woo errors to me, but that’s what they tell me. Thank you again for your help.
Hi @savingpatterns,
Thanks for the details.
What your host shared shows repeated requests hitting index.php, which usually points to front-end traffic or blocked requests being retried, not WooCommerce background tasks. WooCommerce scheduled jobs typically run via wp-cron.php, not by constantly loading the homepage.
The 301 redirect from .com to .ca is normal and shouldn’t cause this on its own. The repeated 403.shtml entries suggest something is being blocked and retried (bot traffic, firewall rule, or server security), which could also explain the lockout.
At this point, it would help if your host can confirm what is repeatedly requesting index.php (IP/user agent) and what is triggering the 403s. That’s server-level info only they can see.
Once you regain wp-admin access, we can review Scheduled Actions, but so far, this doesn’t clearly point to a WooCommerce task loop.
Hello again, apparently it’s a facebook crawler. Is that built into Woo or something? Because I don’t understand why they would say it was coming from Woo. The only connection I intentionally have to facebook is a link to my store page.
meta-webindexer/1.1 (+https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/crawler)
Hi @savingpatterns, thanks for sharing that detail, this is a really helpful discovery and it helps narrow things down.
The Facebook crawler you mentioned, meta webindexer, is not built into WooCommerce and is not triggered by WooCommerce background tasks. It is used by Facebook to scan pages when links are shared or previewed, and it typically accesses the front end of the site through index.php, which matches what your host is seeing.
This lines up with the earlier signs that repeated front end requests, blocked requests, or security rules are causing retries, rather than WooCommerce scheduled actions. WooCommerce background tasks normally run through wp cron and would not show up as repeated homepage loads like this.
At this point, it would be best for the host to review why the Facebook crawler is being blocked or retried so aggressively, for example by a firewall rule, rate limiting, or security configuration. That kind of behavior can easily cause CPU spikes even on otherwise healthy sites.
Once you are able to regain wp admin access, we are still happy to help review Scheduled Actions on the WooCommerce side, but based on everything shared so far, this does not appear to be originating from WooCommerce itself.
Please let us know how things go once the host adjusts their rules or shares more details, we are glad to keep helping.
That’s what I thought. Thank you for the through explanation. I am back in my wp admin now. wp-cron is currently disabled.
Under failed is” action_scheduler/migration_hook” as of 7 minutes ago. The 17 pending are mostly once a day or every 12 hours – not enough to overload my resource allowance.
I did disallow facebook from my wordfence allowlist because I don’t intend to use any facebook accessing plugins/widgets and would take great joy in being able to escape that site. I’m guessing something I have installed is insisting on connecting with that site? Or are those bots always external and it’s hit my site simply because I am online?
EDIT; Oh is it failed because wp-cron is disabled?
Hi @savingpatterns, thanks for sharing the update and the detailed context. It’s great to hear you’re back in wp-admin.
You’re correct, the “action_scheduler/migration_hook” failures are likely due to wp-cron being disabled. Once you re-enable it, those actions should process normally. The daily or 12-hourly pending actions are standard and won’t overload resources, so there’s no need for concern there.
Regarding the Facebook crawler, those bots are external and not part of WooCommerce. They visit your site when links are shared or previewed, and can hit pages even if you haven’t installed Facebook plugins. Disallowing them via Wordfence will prevent further access if you don’t want them crawling your site.
If you want these scheduled actions to run without wp-cron triggering on page load, you can set up a server cron job via cPanel to hit wp-cron.php at intervals. This way, WooCommerce tasks run reliably without affecting front-end performance. You can learn more about managing WooCommerce background tasks here: https://woocommerce.com/document/understanding-the-woocommerce-system-status-report/scheduled-actions/.
If wp-cron wasn’t the source of the problem I will re-enable it. I’m confused as to why my host would blame you when its a facebook bot. Thank you very much for going above and beyond! I’ll work on blocking that bot – and removing my one link to it in case that’s what alerting that monster to my site. Thank you!
Hi @savingpatterns, it’s great to hear back from you and I’m glad we could help clarify what was happening with your site and point you in the right direction. It sounds like you’re now in a much better position to manage the background tasks and bot access.
If you found our support helpful, we’d really appreciate it if you could leave a review for WooCommerce here: https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/woocommerce/reviews/#new-post – your feedback means a lot to us.
