FAIR

Federated and Independent Repositories

WP Cron HTTP Auth

Plugin Banner

WP Cron HTTP Auth

by Jeff Starr

Download
Description

This plugin enables WP Cron on sites using HTTP Authentication.

How to use: Visit the plugin settings, enter your HTTP Auth credentials, save changes, and done.

Everything happens silently and automatically in the background.

New! Supports defined constants via wp-config.php (learn more)

Privacy

This plugin does not collect or store any user data. It does not set any cookies, and it does not connect to any third-party locations. Thus, this plugin does not affect user privacy in any way.

WP Cron HTTP Auth is developed and maintained by Jeff Starr, 15-year WordPress developer and book author.

Support development

I develop and maintain this free plugin with love for the WordPress community. To show support, you can make a donation or purchase one of my books:

And/or purchase one of my premium WordPress plugins:

Links, tweets and likes also appreciated. Thank you! 🙂

Installing the Plugin

  1. Upload the plugin to your blog and activate
  2. Visit the plugin settings to configure options

More info on installing WP plugins

Using Constants

Thanks to feedback from @nowakpiotrek, this plugin supports username and password constants defined in WordPress wp-config.php. So instead of entering the username and password via the plugin settings, you can add the following definitions to the wp-config.php file, just before the line that says, “That’s all, stop editing!” There you can add the following code:

define('WP_CRON_HTTP_AUTH_USERNAME', 'your-http-auth-username');
define('WP_CRON_HTTP_AUTH_PASSWORD', 'your-http-auth-password');

Change your-http-auth-username and your-http-auth-password to match your username and password, respectively. After saving changes, you can verify the new constants are working by visiting the plugin settings page. If the constants are working, the username and password options will be greyed out, with a message that says, “Username/Password set in wp-config.php”.

Uninstalling

This plugin cleans up after itself. All plugin settings will be removed from the WordPress database when the plugin is uninstalled via the Plugins screen.

Restore Default Options

To restore default options, uninstall the plugin via the WP Plugins screen, and then reinstall.

Like the plugin?

If you like WP Cron HTTP Auth, please take a moment to give a 5-star rating. It helps to keep development and support going strong. Thank you!

  1. Plugin settings

    Plugin settings

Does this work for WP Multisite?

Yes, this plugin works great on Multisite.

How to test if the plugin is working?

To test if this plugin is working, follow these steps:

  1. Install and activate the excellent plugin, WP Crontrol

  2. Visit the “Cron Events” screen in the WP Admin Area (under Tools menu)

  3. Look for a warning message at the top of the screen that says:

“There was a problem spawning a call to the WP-Cron system on your site. This means WP-Cron events on your site may not work. The problem was: Unexpected HTTP response code: 401”

If the warning message is displayed, then HTTP Auth is blocking WP Cron. Otherwise, if no warning message is displayed, WP Cron is working normally.

Note: after testing it is fine to delete the WP Crontrol plugin if no longer needed.

Got a question?

Send any questions or feedback via my contact form

I couldn't live without this plugin

By Jean Werk (brightbluegum) on March 15, 2025

Simple and efficient. I've installed it on all my Dev sites.

Does it work with NGINX?

By digitalgonzo (bzosel) on December 28, 2023

Hi,

Thanks a lot for the plugin!
Does it also work with NGINX?
For some reason it does not work on my server...
Many thanks!

it works!

By Anonymous User 20791862 (anonymized_20791862) on January 13, 2023

it works!

Works perfect!

By worldtravlr on August 16, 2022

Thanks for making this plugin! Works as described!

Best to protect!

By tinaponting (ponting) on April 22, 2022

A great smal plugin that really makes a diffrence in protection

Top banana

By twobyte on March 29, 2022

Does what it says!

Saved me a lot of time!

By bapman on January 25, 2022

I am glad this plugin exists! Big thanks to the devs!

Does exactly what it says on the tin

By bigsalami on November 18, 2021

WPCRON won't run out-of-box with HTTPAUTH active (popup credentials) - this tool allows you to enter your HTTPAUTH credentials and lets WPCRON run as normal. Perfect solve for my problem, thank you!

Great plugin that do the Job silently

By sdarwish on October 19, 2020

Thanks for your efforts in developing this simple and effective plugin

Simple and awesome!

By phparkle on June 24, 2020

Does the job perfectly. Thank you!

If you like WP Cron HTTP Auth, please take a moment to give a 5-star rating. It helps to keep development and support going strong. Thank you!

3.3 (2025/11/19)

  • Restores load_i18n()
  • Improves readme.txt documentation
  • Generates new language template
  • Tests on WordPress 6.9 (beta)

Full changelog @ https://plugin-planet.com/wp/changelog/wp-cron-http-auth.txt

Back to top