Updated to pfSense 25.11 now pfBlocker shows no cron job
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After I updated to pfSense 25.11 I've noticed that the Update page on pfBlockerNG shows:
NEXT Scheduled CRON Event will run at [ Missing cron task ] with -- time remaining.
Checking system logs, it does seem that the cron IS running at the specified time.
Seems that after the initial cron job that ran at 09:15 further updates did not runChecking the Cron jobs installed on the Cron UI page, I don't see anything related to pfBlockerNG at 15 min over the hour, every hour
Just to confirm, this is my cron setting in pfBlockerNG:
I also tried to reinstall the package just to be sure, after reinstall immediately the Cron job did show up for a bit, then it was gone. I managed to see this in the system logs:
Dec 12 08:34:05 php-fpm 22059 /pfblockerng/pfblockerng_update.php: Configuration Change: <username>@<IP> (Local Database): Removed cron job for pfblockerng.php cronDon't know how and why this happens.
EDIT: It seems that after the initial cron task at 09:15 from my screenshot there were no future updates at 10:15 so the cron does actually NOT run.
Further checks on /etc/contab DOES show the pfblockerng cron job but using the Cron package in the UI does not show it.... what's going on?
# # pfSense specific crontab entries # Created: December 12, 2025, 10:32 am # SHELL=/bin/sh PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin */1 * * * * root /usr/sbin/newsyslog 1 3 * * * root /etc/rc.periodic daily 15 4 * * 6 root /etc/rc.periodic weekly 30 5 1 * * root /etc/rc.periodic monthly 1,31 0-5 * * * root /usr/bin/nice -n20 adjkerntz -a 1 3 1 * * root /usr/bin/nice -n20 /etc/rc.update_bogons.sh 1 1 * * * root /usr/bin/nice -n20 /etc/rc.dyndns.update */60 * * * * root /usr/bin/nice -n20 /usr/local/sbin/expiretable -v -t 3600 virusprot 30 12 * * * root /usr/bin/nice -n20 /etc/rc.update_urltables 1 0 * * * root /usr/bin/nice -n20 /etc/rc.update_pkg_metadata * * * * * root /usr/bin/nice -n20 /usr/local/bin/php /usr/local/sbin/acbupload.php 0 21 * * * root /usr/local/bin/php /usr/local/www/pfblockerng/pfblockerng.php dcc >> /var/log/pfblockerng/extras.log 2>&1 16 3 * * * root /usr/local/pkg/acme/acme_command.sh "renewall" | /usr/bin/logger -t ACME 2>&1 0 0 * * * root /usr/local/bin/php /usr/local/www/pfblockerng/pfblockerng.php clearip >/dev/null 2>&1 0 0 * * * root /usr/local/bin/php /usr/local/www/pfblockerng/pfblockerng.php cleardnsbl >/dev/null 2>&1 15 * * * * root /usr/local/bin/php /usr/local/www/pfblockerng/pfblockerng.php cron >> /var/log/pfblockerng/pfblockerng.log 2>&1 # # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE MANUALLY! # Use the cron package or create files in /etc/cron.d/. #vs the Cron UI page:
EDIT 2: It seems that after a reboot of pfsense the cron job is now working again, but it still shows "Missing cron job" in pfblockerng Update page and still the Cron page doesn't show the cron job. When checking via cli, it DOES show it.
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@IonutIT Same issue
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@IonutIT said in Updated to pfSense 25.11 now pfBlocker shows no cron job:
but it still shows "Missing cron job" in pfblockerng Update page and still the Cron page doesn't show the cron job. When checking via cli, it DOES show it.
Which one is missing where ?
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If you look at the bottom of my post, the text output from /etc/crontab has this line:
15 * * * * root /usr/local/bin/php /usr/local/www/pfblockerng/pfblockerng.php cron >> /var/log/pfblockerng/pfblockerng.log 2>&1Which does NOT show up at all in the Cron UI page (from the Services -> Cron ... after installing the pfsense cron package).
Technically I wouldn't be bothered about this if it wasn't for the fact that pfblockerng itself is complaining the cronjob is missing, which is weird.
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I am seeing the same thing. PF Blocker NG devel 3.2.12_2.
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@Uglybrian apparently the VIP address is missing/not configured in the Firewall/PfBlockerNG/DNSBL
choosing "VIPs must be configured first at Firewall > Virtual IPs." selection under the "DNSBL Webserver Configuration" header will go to the module where you can create a VIP. If I remembered right the there used to be a 10.10.10.1 address under localhost but I could not create that.
For test I created the 10.10.10.1 address on a lan network so it can't go anywhere.
When selecting that in the "DNSBL Webserver Configuration", save it ant then perform an update of the DNSBL it started working.
It might be something I don't completely understand or it may be a bug but it is something in that direction. -
Don't really get how your reply fits in this thread. Maybe you wanted to post this somewhere else and you got here by mistake?
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S SteveITS referenced this topic on
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Ran into this as well upgrading from 25.07.1 to 25.11 today - seems like an issue with the pfBlockerNG package. Has anyone found a resolution yet? Thanks in advance.
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T tman222 referenced this topic on
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I also have this issue after updating to 25.11 today and as yet not been able to resolve it. Mine is not updating and shows the missing cron job message.
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i am also facing this issue
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I can confirm the cronjob is performed even if it is not shown in pfBlocker and CRON GUI.
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I did reinstall the pfblocker package and the job does re-appear. but if I run reload or update all manually then the cron job goes missing again and for me the job does not run after it goes missing
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@CRowmAN Yes, that's my experience as well. But if you restart pfsense after that point, cron jobs will start working again, even though the update page on pfblockerng will still show missing cron job.
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@IonutIT mine works as soon as I have reinstalled, as long as I dont run a manual update or reload it stays visible and working
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Hmmm - this is interesting: In my case the cron job disappeared as well and there were no further entries of it running in pfblockerng.log. However, I checked and the pfBlockerNG associated cron jobs are still listed in /etc/crontab.
Next I decided to go to the General tab on the pfBlockerNG configuration and just changed the update minute under CRON settings and then hit Save. When it was time for the cron job to run, the entries re-appeared in system logs as well as in the pfblockerng.log file, so I assume it ran successfully. I then switched it back to the update minute I had before and it ran fine again. No idea if it will ultimately persist, but it has been running for the last couple hours. So maybe a reboot / reinstall is not needed?
It also makes me wonder now whether this is maybe a more superficial issue related to the PHP upgrade that came along with 25.11 vs. something with the underlying package - the pfBlockerNG dashboard widget is also not displaying things correctly.
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@tman222 Yeah, the more I dig into this, the more I think it's a PHP issue, as this is the only way why the Cron output in the GUI differs from the output of /etc/crontab. It makes no sense for these two to output something completely different. That being said, it's also weird that for all of us, the ONLY item that differs from the two locations is the pfblockerng cron.
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I did also try changing the cron from 1 minute to 2 minutes in the general tab, this did not work for me.
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@CRowmAN said in Updated to pfSense 25.11 now pfBlocker shows no cron job:
I did also try changing the cron from 1 minute to 2 minutes in the general tab, this did not work for me.
Hmmm, where were you able to switch the pfBlockerNG cron setting from 1 minute to 2 minutes in the General Settings (General tab)? All I see as the minute options are 0,15,30,45. So far so good on my side - things have continued to run every hour since my last post above.
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@IonutIT the question then becomes: does this need a pfsense patch to be fixed ot “just” an updated pfBlockerNG package that addresses the changes needed to work with the new PHP?
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I will take a look tomorrow. Stay tuned.
