Scheduled GitHub Actions workflows never start, but manual runs succeed

[Roy1980]

Hello,

I’m investigating why three daily scheduled workflows in a private repository never start, while manual runs succeed.

All three workflows are active and present on the default branch, main. Each includes workflow_dispatch and schedule:

• Database backup: 17 3 * * *
• Repository backup: 47 3 * * *
• Backup freshness check: 17 9 * * *

All times are UTC.

The schedules were added on October 11, 2026. Manual runs completed successfully that day, including their jobs.

On October 13 at 08:38 UTC, the GitHub API reported zero schedule runs since October 11. There were no failed, skipped or queued scheduled runs. The database and repository runs expected that morning had not been created.

Checks completed:

• Repository Actions permissions allow all actions and reusable workflows.
• All three workflows are active.
• The repository variable BACKUP_ENABLED is set to true.
• Current monthly Actions usage is 180 Linux minutes, with $0 billed.
• The Actions budget is $0 with “Stop usage” enabled, but usage is below the included allowance.
• A change to off-hour cron minutes was merged on October 12, but the next scheduled backup runs still did not appear.
• Subsequent merges did not remove or change the schedules.

What else could prevent schedule events from creating workflow runs? Is there a way to verify whether GitHub has registered the schedules, or to request an investigation without changing the cron expressions again?

I can share sanitized workflow excerpts if needed, but cannot share credentials or backup contents.

Thank you!

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[mohittguptaa]

Your setup looks correct: the workflows are on main, they're active, the cron syntax is valid, and manual runs work. One thing worth knowing is that this isn't isolated. Since about Oct 5 there have been several reports in this forum with the same symptom: zero schedule runs while dispatch works, including #209964, #210037, #210040 and #210059. That points to the scheduler on GitHub's side rather than your config.

Things to try, cheapest first:

1. Re-register the schedule. Edit the cron: line in each workflow (even change 17 3 to 18 3) and push to main. Schedules are registered from the default-branch commit that last changed them, and a fresh change sometimes fixes a schedule that never registered.
2. Avoid busy minutes. Yours (:17, :47) already do this, which is good. Schedules at :00 are the most likely to be dropped.
3. Use an external trigger for anything critical. Backups shouldn't depend on best-effort scheduling. A tiny cron job anywhere (a server, a Cloudflare Worker cron, or another repo's workflow) can call the dispatch API, which you've confirmed works:

   gh workflow run "Database backup" --repo OWNER/REPO --ref main

   Keep the schedule: trigger as well, so whichever fires first runs. Your freshness check will catch gaps either way.

If nothing appears after step 1, add a +1 on the newest of the threads above with your repo and the expected run times. Several affected repos in one place makes it easier for GitHub staff to pick up.