HangfireIO/Hangfire · error · ArgumentException

JobStorage.JobExpirationTimeout value should be equal or gre

Error message

JobStorage.JobExpirationTimeout value should be equal or greater than zero.

What it means

Thrown by the JobStorage.JobExpirationTimeout setter when the value is a negative TimeSpan. This timeout controls how long completed/failed jobs remain in storage before automatic cleanup; a negative value is logically invalid.

Source

Thrown at src/Hangfire.Core/JobStorage.cs:74

            {
                lock (LockObject)
                {
                    _current = value;
                }
            }
        }

        public TimeSpan JobExpirationTimeout
        {
            get
            {
                return _jobExpirationTimeout;
            }
            set
            {
                if (value < TimeSpan.Zero)
                {
                    throw new ArgumentException("JobStorage.JobExpirationTimeout value should be equal or greater than zero.", nameof(value));
                }

                _jobExpirationTimeout = value;
            }
        }

        public virtual bool LinearizableReads => false;

        public abstract IMonitoringApi GetMonitoringApi();

        public abstract IStorageConnection GetConnection();

        public virtual IStorageConnection GetReadOnlyConnection()
        {
            return GetConnection();
        }

#pragma warning disable 618

View on GitHub (pinned to c236dd0f93)

Solutions

Use TimeSpan.Zero to disable expiration delay, or a positive value like TimeSpan.FromDays(1)
Validate the configuration value is non-negative before assigning
Use Math.Max(TimeSpan.Zero, parsedTimespan) as a safety guard

Example fix

// before
storage.JobExpirationTimeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(config.TimeoutSeconds);
// config.TimeoutSeconds is -30

// after
var seconds = Math.Max(0, config.TimeoutSeconds);
storage.JobExpirationTimeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(seconds);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

var timeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(config.TimeoutSeconds);
if (timeout < TimeSpan.Zero) timeout = TimeSpan.Zero;
storage.JobExpirationTimeout = timeout;

Type guard

value >= TimeSpan.Zero

Prevention

Use Math.Max(TimeSpan.Zero, value) when computing timeouts from configuration
Validate config values for timeout are non-negative at application startup
Use TimeSpan.Zero to keep jobs indefinitely, not negative values

When it happens

Trigger: Setting JobStorage.Current.JobExpirationTimeout = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(-5) or passing a negative TimeSpan value. Also occurs when computing the timeout from a configuration value that was parsed as a negative number.

Common situations: A misconfigured app setting (e.g., JobExpirationTimeout=-1 in config), an arithmetic error computing the timeout, or a deserialized TimeSpan from a config file with a negative value.

Understand the failure class

Timeouts: ETIMEDOUT, deadlines, and hung requests — what actually expires when a request times out.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of HangfireIO/Hangfire@c236dd0f93 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/644d3676ca11b0ae. Report an issue: GitHub.