# Manage scheduled tasks

## Overview

In Sitefinity CMS scheduled tasks are used to execute a predefined set of operations at a particular point in time. You can, for example, schedule a news item to be published at a particular date and time or schedule a site sync operation.

You can also create custom scheduled tasks, for example, using Sitefinity CMS event system to postpone the execution of heavy operations.

Sitefinity CMS has a page where you can view all scheduled tasks that are in progress, stopped, pending, or failed and take respective actions.

> info **PREREQUISITES**: To access the *Scheduled tasks* page, you must have administrative permissions.

## Scheduled task page

To access the page with the list of all scheduled tasks, navigate to *Administration* » *Scheduled tasks*.\
A list of all scheduled tasks in your Sitefinity CMS instance appears:

* The list contains failed, stopped, started, and pending tasks.
* All completed tasks do not appear – they can be found in the `Trace.log`.
* The list contains system tasks, as well as custom scheduled tasks that you create.\
  For more information, see [Scheduled tasks API](https://www.progress.com/documentation/sitefinity-cms/schedule-a-task).

For each task, the following information is displayed:

<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>

<strong>Property</strong>

</td>
<td>

<strong>Description</strong>

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<em>Task</em> name

</td>
<td>

This is the full name of the class responsible for the execution of the task

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<em>Item name</em>

</td>
<td>

The title appears below the name. This is the user-friendly name of the task as defined in the task definition. If there is no such name defined, the title does not appear.

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

Recurrence indication

</td>
<td>

When a task is recurring, next to its name, the system displays <em>Recurring (?)</em>.

If you click the question mark, the system displays the recurrence interval as a crontab expression in a tooltip.\
For more information, see [Generate crontab expressions](https://www.progress.com/documentation/sitefinity-cms/tutorial-generate-crontab-expressions).

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<em>Status</em>

</td>
<td>

<p>This is the status of the task. It can be one of the following:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Pending</em> &ndash; the execution date of the task is in the future.</li>
<li><em>Started</em> &ndash; the execution date of the task has been reached and the execution of the task is currently in progress.</li>
<li><em>Stopped</em> &ndash; the execution of the task has been explicitly stopped by the user from the relevant module.</li>
<li><em>Failed (?)</em> &ndash; the system executed the task, but the execution failed. <br>
If you click the question mark, the system displays the error message as defined in the task definition.</li>
</ul>

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<em>Scheduled for</em>

</td>
<td>

This is the scheduled execution date of the task.

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<em>Executed on<br>
</em>

</td>
<td>

This is the date when the system attempted to execute the task. <br>
This field is applicable only to failed, stopped, and started tasks. The tasks that are successfully executed are removed from the list.

</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

> info  **NOTE**: You can stop the execution of all scheduled stasks on a particular node of a load-balanced setup. For more information, see [Disable the execution of scheduled tasks](https://www.progress.com/documentation/sitefinity-cms/disable-the-execution-of-scheduled-tasks).

## Task actions

You can access each task actions by expanding its *Actions* link. Depending on their status, you can perform the following actions with the scheduled tasks:

* Failed tasks\
  You can attempt to *Retry* a failed task
* Pending tasks\
  You can *Start* a pending task.\
  To start a task means that instead of the scheduled execution date and time, you change it to the current date and time. When the scheduling module finishes processing current tasks, it will execute it.
* All tasks\
  You can delete all types of tasks.

  > important **IMPORTANT**: Deleting a stopped or a started task may cause data corruption. You must proceed with caution.

> info **NOTE**: You cannot start a stopped task and you cannot stop a started task. You must do that from the module where you have started or stopped the operation. For example, if you have stopped moving images from one library to another, to resume the operation, you must go to the *Libraries* module where you have stopped it

## Sort tasks

By default, tasks are sorted by scheduled execution date in ascending order (by column *SCHEDULED FOR*). You can change that using the *Sort* dropdown box in the toolbar.\
You can sort tasks:

* *by Scheduled date* - ascending
* *by Execution date* – ascending
* *Alphabetically* – ascending or descending
* *by Status*

## Filter tasks

You can filter tasks by status, using the following filters in the right pane:

* *All tasks*
* *Pending*
* *Started*
* *Stopped*
* *Failed*
* *Recurring*

## Search tasks

Searches in the task name.\
You can sort the search results.