Troubleshoot QCDS Scheduled Tasks, Automation, and Entitlement Health

QCDS uses Joomla Scheduled Tasks for unattended reminders, exact-timing Request actions, completion recovery/delivery, and entitlement revalidation. A task can be correctly configured yet still become overdue if Joomla's scheduler runner is not being triggered, so troubleshoot both the task definition and actual execution.

Know the Four Canonical Tasks

• QC Digital Signature Automatic Reminders — fresh-install default every 60 minutes.
• QC Digital Signature Request Timing and Deadlines — fresh-install default every 5 minutes.
• QC Digital Signature Final PDF and Completion Delivery — fresh-install default every 5 minutes.
• QC Digital Signature Entitlement Revalidation — canonical hourly task.

The task plugin contains the worker routines QCDS needs. Do not manually create duplicates because you see additional internal routine names in code or logs.

Start with QCDS → Status

The Status tab exposes Automatic Reminder Integrity and Entitlement Automation Integrity. Automatic Reminder Integrity expects the task plugin to be enabled and exactly one Automatic Reminders task to be published. Entitlement Automation Integrity performs stricter checks: plugin/files available, exactly one published canonical task, valid cadence, recent execution, and healthy exit state.

Use Open Scheduled Tasks for the full Joomla task list and execution details.

If Reminders Are Late

Verify the Automatic Reminders task is enabled and actually running. Updates preserve the administrator-selected reminder schedule. Remember that the frozen Request reminder interval decides whether a participant is due; running the task does not force a reminder for someone who is not yet due or not in the active routing stage.

If Deadlines or Routing Actions Are Late

Check Request Timing and Deadlines. Its fresh-install schedule is every five minutes and it processes due expiration, deadline-warning, routing-escalation, and other queued exact-timing Request actions. A due action is handled when Joomla runs the task after its due time.

If a Fully Signed Request Is Not Completing

Check Final PDF and Completion Delivery. It finalizes fully signed Requests, retries safe bounded completion failures, and processes protected completion delivery. The default is every five minutes; updates preserve an administrator-selected schedule.

Treat Entitlement Revalidation as Security-Sensitive

QCDS requires exactly one enabled Entitlement Revalidation task running at least once every 60 minutes. If the plugin/task is missing, disabled, unpublished, duplicated, structurally invalid, or configured slower than hourly, QCDS resolves premium entitlement to Basic until task health is restored.

Temporary communication failure is different from structural task failure: a previously confirmed paid/preview state may remain only inside the bounded validation grace rules and never past a known entitlement/preview expiration.

If Tasks Look Healthy but Do Not Run

Check the task's Last execution, Last exit code, and Next execution, then verify that Joomla Scheduled Tasks has a reliable runner. Low-traffic sites often need a deliberate Joomla-native wake-up/cron strategy. Repair the runner rather than shortening every task to compensate for a scheduler that is not executing.

Community Discussion

Want to compare workflows, share practical tips, or discuss how you use this QCDS feature? Visit the QC Digital Signature Community. For private support, bug reports, account-specific issues, or feature requests, use the QuantaCade support system.