🧭 Overview
If your auto scan did not run on its scheduled date, there are several possible causes. This article walks you through the most common reasons a scan is skipped and shows you exactly how to run a manual crawl so you never lose an audit cycle.
⚠️ Why Your Auto Scan May Have Been Skipped
A missed auto scan is rarely caused by a single issue. Work through each of the following checks before concluding the root cause.
✅ Check 1: Scheduling Settings
The most common reason a scan does not run is that the schedule was never saved correctly or was changed accidentally.
- Open the project that missed its scan.
- Navigate to the scheduling or crawl settings for that project.
- Confirm the scan frequency (daily, weekly, monthly) is set to the option you expect.
- Check that the scheduled date and time match your intended configuration.
- If anything looks incorrect, update the settings and save your changes.
✅ Check 2: Account Permissions and Crawl Credits
Auto scans may require the correct role permissions and sufficient crawl credits on your plan.
- Permissions: If your account role was recently changed, your scheduled scan may have been affected. Check with your account owner if you are unsure about your current permissions.
- Crawl credits: If your account reached its crawl credit limit, the scan may have been skipped. Check your account's usage or billing information to verify your remaining credits.
✅ Check 3: Rate Limiting on Your Website
Search Atlas respects server-side rate limits. If your website's server returned too many errors or throttled the crawler, the scan may have stopped or been skipped entirely.
- Check your website's server logs around the expected scan time for any error spikes or throttling activity.
- If rate limiting is active, consider adjusting your server's crawl rate settings or reducing the crawl depth in your project's settings.
✅ Check 4: Bot-Blocking or Firewall Rules (Including Cloudflare)
Security tools such as Cloudflare, Sucuri, or a custom Web Application Firewall (WAF) can block the Search Atlas crawler, causing a scan to fail silently.
- Log in to your firewall or CDN provider and review the firewall activity log for blocked requests around the scheduled scan time.
- Look for blocked requests from the Search Atlas crawler user agent.
- If you find blocks, add the Search Atlas crawler to your allowlist, or contact the person who manages your website's security settings.
- Note: If you do not have access to these settings yourself, you will need to ask your website administrator or developer to make this change.
🔄 How to Run a Manual Crawl
If you need to run a crawl immediately rather than waiting for the next scheduled scan, you can trigger a manual crawl from within your project's crawl or audit settings. Look for an option to start or run a new crawl and confirm the action to begin.
📞 Still Need Help?
If you have worked through all of the checks above and your auto scan is still not running, or if you are unsure which step applies to your situation, please reach out to our support team. When you do, have the following ready: your project name, the date and time the scan was expected to run, and any error messages you have seen.
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.