Task Scheduler Issue

Hi, I'm running windows 10 and I seem to be having a problem with my task scheduler. My disks are set to 'optimise' automatically, on a weekly basis, but I noticed it was going for weeks, even months without running. My system is only about 3 months old and I suspect it's been an issue from the beginning.


The first advice I got was to go into Services.msc and restart the task scheduler, but it's completely unresponsive. Along the top of services there are options - start service, stop service, pause service, restart service, but none of them do anything. It says service is running. When I highlight other services, one of those options along the top highlights in green, (which one depends on whether the particular service is already running or not, it's usually stop or restart). But not so with task scheduler. So there seems to be an issue with it.



So far I have tried the following;

Starting in Safe Mode.
Clean boot (although I'm not entirely convinced that procedure is going properly)
Running sfc /scannow command prompt.
DISM - CheckHealth, ScanHealth, RestoreHealth


None of these seem to have helped. I can do manual optimise, but I'm concerned there might be other scheduled tasks that aren't running which I'm not aware of, so I'd like to get it sorted.



I'd be grateful for any other suggestions that might help fix this issue, please bear in mind I'm not very technical.

Thanks

Hello :)

Looking at your specs I see you have an SSD. These do not need defragmentation but do benefit from a trimming optimisation. You can always do this manually by typing optimise in the search box and opening the app to run the optimisation.

I am not sure what conditions trigger the scheduled task to run but it maybe that it decides your disk does not need an optimisation yet, this would be the case if current status was OK.

philc43 said:

Hello :)

Looking at your specs I see you have an SSD. These do not need defragmentation but do benefit from a trimming optimisation. You can always do this manually by typing optimise in the search box and opening the app to run the optimisation.

I am not sure what conditions trigger the scheduled task to run but it maybe that it decides your disk does not need an optimisation yet, this would be the case if current status was OK.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes I have an SSD, I understand the difference between defrag and optimise and it seems to be a contentious issue whether or not defragging is good or bad for SSD's. In any case, I'm not looking to do that, it's just the optimise (trimming as you put it) I'm interested in for now. I can do it manually as you say, but I'd still prefer task scheduler was working properly because as I mentioned in the OP, I'm worried there might be other scheduled tasks not getting done that I'm not aware about.

Ok, that's very interesting about the 'conditions which trigger the task'. I just assumed if it was set to run weekly, it would do that, I didn't consider certain conditions might have to be met to trigger it. So it might actually be working fine then. Status does say OK. Currently for Windows C drive in status it says (OK - 17 days since last run).


One thing that slightly concerns me though is, there are 3 drives listed; Windows C drive, Recovery D drive, and something else called \\?\Volume(047….. I'm not even sure what that last one is, someone else said it might be my WinRe recovery partition and isn't important, or doesn't see a lot of traffic, idk. But that drive says, Never run, and in status - needs optimisation and it is checked in the automatic schedule? This again makes me wonder about the scheduler.

dalchina said:

Hi, apart from disk defrag, do you have any other evidence that the task scheduler is not running?

If there is a problem, check these services are also running, automatic:
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
RPC Endpoint Mapper

To keep an eye on the task scheduler for a while you can create your own scheduled task to, say, open Wordpad every 4 hours.. or whatever suits you.

The right click options to start, stop, restart the t. scheduler service have been greyed out in Windows for a long time.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

Again, just to make a distinction between defrag and optimise (trimming), but the answer is no, I have no other evidence apart from the weekly scheduled 'optimise' not running.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and RPC Endpoint Mapper both say running, automatic, (although again no green highlight, but perhaps that's normal from what you say).


That's good advice to check task scheduler by creating a new task to monitor. I'll need to work out how to do that and give it a try. That will be my next step.


That's very interesting too about the start stop options being greyed out for a long time. It's handy to know and makes me feel more optimistic it's actually working.


In fact, the parts I bolded in the last two posts are very useful information. You would have thought the Microsoft representative on the Microsoft forum would have mentioned those sort of points! ... that's why I come here.

There is an old thread on this issue:

Defrag

The solution was to set the defrag schedule up within the Task scheduler for when you want it to run (probably monthly is sufficient). You could try this.