@cwsmith@community.nodebb.org what exactly is happening when you get that error?

Can you share a portion of the log from when that occurs?

@julian@activitypub.space

Sure.

Here's what I got at the moment.

nfo: Initializing NodeBB v4.13.2 https://community.darkscribes.com                                                    0|darkscribes  | 2026-06-25T17:41:16.558Z [4567/234065] - info: [socket.io] Restricting access to origin: https://community.darkscribes.com:*                                    0|darkscribes  | 2026-06-25T17:41:16.584Z [4567/234065] - error: Error: ERROR: You specified an invalid date.         0|darkscribes  |     at CronTime.getNextDateFrom (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/node_modules/cron/dist/time.js:130:19)                                                      0|darkscribes  |     at CronTime.sendAt (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/node_modules/cron/dist/time.js:86:35)     0|darkscribes  |     at CronTime.getTimeout (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/node_modules/cron/dist/time.js:99:21) 0|darkscribes  |     at CronJob.start (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/node_modules/cron/dist/job.js:163:37)       0|darkscribes  |     at new CronJob (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/node_modules/cron/dist/job.js:68:18)          0|darkscribes  |     at exports.addJob (/var/www/community.
darkscribes.com/src/cron.js:42:14)                         0|darkscribes  |     at Notifications.startJobs (/var/www/c
ommunity.darkscribes.com/src/notifications.js:79:13)       0|darkscribes  |     at Object.wrapperCallback [as startJob
s] (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/src/promisify.js:46:11)
0|darkscribes  |     at start.start (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/src/start.js:39:37)
0|darkscribes  |     at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5)                   

It looks like the cron pattern passed to the cron module is invalid, can you log it's value in src/cron.js? What is the output of npm ls cron ?

Not sure how to do the first thing. But here is the output of the second.

cwsmith@map-communities /var/www/community.darkscribes.com $ npm ls cron
nodebb@4.13.2 /var/www/community.darkscribes.com
├── cron@4.4.0
├─┬ nodebb-plugin-poll@4.0.10
│ └── cron@1.8.2
└─┬ nodebb-plugin-rss@4.0.2
└── cron@1.8.2

The version of cron looks good. To check the value passed to cron open up the file cron.js in /path/to/nodebb/src/cron.js and add a console.log(cronTime) on here. Then restart nodebb and see what the message shows in the logs. For each cronjob that was started it should show it's pattern.

I'll be be honest. I am not sure I did it right.

But here's what the log is spitting out.

0|darkscribes  | 2026-06-26T12:00:56.479Z [4567/316835] - info: Initializing NodeBB v4.13.2 https://community.darkscribes.com                                                    0|darkscribes  | 2026-06-26T12:00:57.525Z [4567/316835] - info: [socket.io] Restricting access to origin: https://community.darkscribes.com:*                                    0|darkscribes  | 2026-06-26T12:00:57.552Z [4567/316835] - error: Error: ERROR: You specified an invalid date.         0|darkscribes  |     at CronTime.getNextDateFrom (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/node_modules/cron/dist/time.js:130:19)
0|darkscribes  |     at CronTime.sendAt (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/node_modules/cron/dist/time.js:86:35)
0|darkscribes  |     at CronTime.getTimeout (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/node_modules/cron/dist/time.js:99:21)
0|darkscribes  |     at CronJob.start (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/node_modules/cron/dist/job.js:163:37)
0|darkscribes  |     at new CronJob (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/node_modules/cron/dist/job.js:68:18)
0|darkscribes  |     at exports.addJob (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/src/cron.js:42:14)
0|darkscribes  |     at Notifications.startJobs (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/src/notifications.js:79:13)
0|darkscribes  |     at Object.wrapperCallback [as startJobs] (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/src/promisify.js:46:11)
0|darkscribes  |     at start.start (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/src/start.js:39:37)
0|darkscribes  |     at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5)
0|darkscribes  | 2026-06-26T12:00:57.766Z [4567/316851] -

Doesn't look like it shows anything new. Did you restart nodebb after adding the console.log?

@baris

I did. Not even sure why this is coming up sinxe that databse and the code was working properly on another server without this particular error.

Could I have missinstalled something?

What is your nodejs version?

24.14.0 running on Gentoo linux

@CWSmith that log isn't showing enough.

Instead of ./nodebb log can you open the log in something like nano so you can see more?

All I see are just blocks of this error over and over in logs/output.log

NodeBB v4.13.2 Copyright (C) 2013-2026 NodeBB Inc. This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistrib>For the full license, please visit: http://www.gnu.org/> Clustering enabled: Spinning up 1 process(es).

2026-07-05T16:37:19.790Z [4567/85498] - ^[[32minfo^[[39>
2026-07-05T16:37:20.749Z [4567/85498] - ^[[33mwarn^[[39>
2026-07-05T16:37:20.921Z [4567/85498] - ^[[32minfo^[[39>
2026-07-05T16:37:20.980Z [4567/85498] - ^[[32minfo^[[39>
2026-07-05T16:37:20.988Z [4567/85498] - ^[[32minfo^[[39>
2026-07-05T16:37:21.013Z [4567/85498] - ^[[31merror^[[3>
at CronTime.getNextDateFrom (/var/www/community.dar>
at CronTime.sendAt (/var/www/community.darkscribes.>
at CronTime.getTimeout (/var/www/community.darkscri>
at CronJob.start (/var/www/community.darkscribes.co>
at new CronJob (/var/www/community.darkscribes.com/>
at exports.addJob (/var/www/community.darkscribes.c>
at Analytics.init (/var/www/community.darkscribes.c>
at Object.wrapperCallback [as init] (/var/www/commu>
at initializeNodeBB (/var/www/community.darkscribes>
at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal>
[cluster] Child Process (85498) has exited (code: 0, si>

NodeBB v4.13.2 Copyright (C) 2013-2026 NodeBB Inc.
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistrib>
For the full license, please visit: http://www.gnu.org/>

Clustering enabled: Spinning up 1 process(es)

I am still on Gentoo Linux so if I missed a use flag I can fix it. Just need a use flag.

@cwsmith@community.nodebb.org I would recommend you try to add in the console log that @baris@community.nodebb.org suggested so we can see the cron value being passed in.

Judging by your logs they're not showing anything output

Can you make the edit and let us know what kind of logging you added as well?