Remove /?doing_wp_cron from URL

[Ellipse]

Hello, I just would like to ask if anyone has a solution to this problem.

We have GoDaddy Managed WordPress Hosting.

• There was an issue with scheduled jobs not working for our WordPress website
  
  
• I contacted the support, and they modified the wp-config.php by adding 

  define( 'ALTERNATE_WP_CRON', true );

  As we have a huge requirement for the scheduled to work properly in the website (e.g. getting reports automatically.)
  
  
• However, by adding the Alternate WP Cron, the website now includes /?doing_wp_cron to every URL on the website.
  
  
• Disabling Alternate WP Cron, disable schedule jobs on our WordPress website 😞

Can anyone recommend how to remove /?doing_wp_cron from appearing to website URL without disabling Alternate WP Cron?

[ablake]

Hey @Ellipse,

After a bit of research, I found that the best solution for this without disabling ALTERNATE_WP_CRON is to add a redirect in .htaccess:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    Options +FollowSymLinks
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (^|&)doing_wp_cron= [NC]
    RewriteRule (.*) /$1? [R=301,L]
</IfModule>

Sources:

https://newbloghosting.com/why-is-doing_wp_cron-being-added-to-my-urls/

https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/12777/why-is-doing-wp-cron-being-appended-to-my-urls

Fair warning: I haven't tried this and can't vouch for how effective a solution it is or whether or not it will cause any issues with your website.

As always, I recommend doing a full backup of files & database to an external location. Your Managed WordPress backups should work fine if anything goes wrong, but it doesn't hurt to be redundant.

Hope this helps!

[Ellipse]

May I know how will edit the HTAccess.

Do I simply add it on the #Wordpress section? or I can put it at the very bottom without causing any issues?

[ablake]

Yeah, it should be fine to just add it to the bottom.

[Ellipse]

I have tried adding it at the very bottom and it causes "Too Many Redirect" error.

[ablake]

There's probably something else creating a redirect. Since this solution uses a redirect, adding it when there's already another redirect happening can loop & cause a "Too Many Redirects" error. 

Could be an SEO plugin or url structure setting. You can read a bit about that stuff here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-error-too-many-redirects-issue-in-wordpress/

If can't find or don't want to change/disable the other redirect, this might not be a good solution for you after all. If not, the only thing I can recommend would be to call support to see if they have any further advice.

I do hope you're able to get it to work, though.

[Ellipse · Accepted solution]

We have already decided to migrate and solve the issue immediately after immigration.