How to fix sql server job schedules

Question

How to fix sql server job schedules

Jamie Greiver 0

How do we fix the issue when the sql agent job schedules are updated but do not run using the new schedule?

We have a Microsoft SQL Server 2019 (RTM-CU32) (KB5054833) - 15.0.4430.1 (X64) instance. whenever we try to adjust an existing job schedule it will not persist the change and will continue to run as the original schedule. For example, If I have a job that is scheduled to run nightly at 10Pm and I change it to run at 11PM it will show as 11PM in the GUI but the job continues to run at 10PM. we have hundreds of jobs so dropping and recreating is not a sustainable option.

Some things we have tried that do not fix:

dbo.sp_attach_schedule
sp_update_jobschedule
the service account for the sql agent has sufficient permissions
system clock is accurate/synced
updated the start date to today
restart the sql agent

Error log for each time tried to update a schedule.

Date,Source,Severity,Message

10/23/2025 10:17:11,,Error,[158] Schedule 6784 does not exist in the schedule cache for job 0x00000000000000000000000000000000: attempting to re-acquire it from the server...

10/23/2025 10:10:05,,Error,[158] Schedule 6784 does not exist in the schedule cache for job 0x00000000000000000000000000000000: attempting to re-acquire it from the server...

10/23/2025 09:43:53,,Error,[158] Schedule 6115 does not exist in the schedule cache for job 0x00000000000000000000000000000000: attempting to re-acquire it from the server...

10/23/2025 08:43:28,,Error,[158] Schedule 6784 does not exist in the schedule cache for job 0x6B4D5AE4EE897E4C93A7DC3B7901D9C6: attempting to re-acquire it from the server...

10/23/2025 08:40:13,,Error,[158] Schedule 6784 does not exist in the schedule cache for job 0x00000000000000000000000000000000: attempting to re-acquire it from the server...

10/23/2025 08:35:46,,Error,[158] Schedule 6784 does not exist in the schedule cache for job 0x00000000000000000000000000000000: attempting to re-acquire it from the server...

10/23/2025 08:15:22,,Error,[158] Schedule 6784 does not exist in the schedule cache for job 0x00000000000000000000000000000000: attempting to re-acquire it from the server...

Erland Sommarskog 127.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-10-30T21:46:22.6733333+00:00

I never had any problems with changing schedules of job, so it seems that there is some sort of problem on your server. Those messages with an all-zeroes job id re-inforces that feeling.

If create a new job and set up a schedule, and then change the schedule for that new job. Does this have effect?
Jamie Greiver 0 Reputation points

2025-10-31T12:42:18.8966667+00:00

I have tested multiple scenarios, including create a new schedule and then change the schedule the same issue always occurs. If it is a problem on the server, what should I look for? What's interesting is that this issue exists on both the primary and secondary servers.

2 answers

Your answer

Erland Sommarskog 127.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-10-30T21:46:22.6733333+00:00

I never had any problems with changing schedules of job, so it seems that there is some sort of problem on your server. Those messages with an all-zeroes job id re-inforces that feeling.

If create a new job and set up a schedule, and then change the schedule for that new job. Does this have effect?
Jamie Greiver 0 Reputation points

2025-10-31T12:42:18.8966667+00:00

I have tested multiple scenarios, including create a new schedule and then change the schedule the same issue always occurs. If it is a problem on the server, what should I look for? What's interesting is that this issue exists on both the primary and secondary servers.

Answer 1

Shruti Dhruv 175 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Jamie Greiver,

This can happen because:
1.The schedule might have been removed or not properly created.
2. The local cache might be out of sync with the server.
3. The job might not have access to the schedule.
4. System bug or misconfiguration.

Verify that schedule 6784 exists in your job scheduler or SQL Server Agent and ensure the job is correctly linked to the schedule. Try to restart SQL Server Agent.

You can also try to run diagnostic query:

SELECT * FROM msdb.dbo.sysschedules WHERE schedule_id = 6784;

Hope this helps!
Thank You

Jamie Greiver 0 Reputation points

2025-10-31T12:49:11.56+00:00

I have tested multiple scenarios, it occurs even when i create a new job and new schedule. If I change the schedule I get the error and the old schedule configuration is used by the job. I check the the msdb.dbo.sysschedules after every test to verify the schedule exists and it does. The sql agent service account has sysadmin role so should have permission to access anything.

Question: How do you confirm if the local cache might be out of sync with the server? how would I resolve this if it is? I tried the dbo.sp_attach_schedule and dbo.sp_update_jobschedule but the issue persists.

Answer 2

Thanks for confirming that this also happen with new jobs.

I would recommend opening a support case to figure out what is going on. If I had access to the server myself, I might be able to run diagnostic queries, set up traces etc to figure out what is going on. But suggesting such operations, when I don't know exactly what to look for, could be very time consuming. So it may be better to have a dedicated support engineer on the case. It is also easier for you to share data with CSS privately than here in a public forum.

It seems that your problem is quite unusual. I googled this error message about the schedule cache, and I got exactly one hit - this thread.

SQL 2019 is out of mainstream support, but I hope a good support engineer can still figure out what is going on.

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How to fix sql server job schedules

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