quarkusio/quarkus · error · IllegalArgumentException

Invalid @Scheduled method '<method>': 'initialDelay' not sup

Error message

Invalid @Scheduled method '<method>': 'initialDelay' not supported for cron triggers

What it means

Cron-based Spring @Scheduled triggers do not take an initial delay, so combining cron with initialDelay/initialDelayString is contradictory. The Quarkus spring-scheduled processor rejects this combination at build time.

Source

Thrown at extensions/spring-scheduled/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/spring/scheduled/deployment/SpringScheduledProcessor.java:107

                List<AnnotationValue> springAnnotationValues = scheduledAnnotation.values();
                List<AnnotationValue> confValues = new ArrayList<>();
                if (!springAnnotationValues.isEmpty()) {
                    if (annotationsValuesContain(springAnnotationValues, "fixedRate")
                            || annotationsValuesContain(springAnnotationValues, "fixedRateString")) {
                        confValues.add(buildEveryParam(springAnnotationValues));
                        if (annotationsValuesContain(springAnnotationValues, "initialDelay")
                                || annotationsValuesContain(springAnnotationValues, "initialDelayString")) {
                            confValues.addAll(buildDelayParams(springAnnotationValues));
                        }

                    } else if (annotationsValuesContain(springAnnotationValues, "fixedDelay")
                            || annotationsValuesContain(springAnnotationValues, "fixedDelayString")) {
                        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                                "Invalid @Scheduled method '" + method.name()
                                        + "': 'fixedDelay' not supported");
                    } else if (annotationsValuesContain(springAnnotationValues, "cron")) {
                        if (annotationsValuesContain(springAnnotationValues, "initialDelay")) {
                            throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                                    "Invalid @Scheduled method '" + method.name()
                                            + "': 'initialDelay' not supported for cron triggers");
                        }
                        confValues.add(buildCronParam(springAnnotationValues));
                    }

                }
                AnnotationInstance regularAnnotationInstance = AnnotationInstance.create(QUARKUS_SCHEDULED,
                        scheduledAnnotation.target(), confValues);
                schedules.add(regularAnnotationInstance);
            }
            if (schedules != null) {
                scheduledBusinessMethods.produce(new ScheduledBusinessMethodItem(bean, method, schedules));
                LOGGER.debugf("Found scheduled business method %s declared on %s", method, bean);
            }
        }
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to e1c734241f)

Solutions

1. Remove initialDelay/initialDelayString from the cron-based @Scheduled
2. Adjust the cron expression so the first fire time is delayed
3. Implement startup-delay logic in the method body or via a delayed startup bean

Example fix

// before
@Scheduled(cron = "0 0 * * * *", initialDelay = 30000)
void report() {}

// after
@Scheduled(cron = "0 0 * * * *")
void report() {}

Scheduled s = method.getAnnotation(Scheduled.class);
if (s != null && !s.cron().isEmpty() && (s.initialDelay() > 0 || !s.initialDelayString().isEmpty())) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("initialDelay invalid with cron on " + method.getName());
}

When it happens

Trigger: @Scheduled(cron = "0 0 * * * *", initialDelay = 30000) or cron combined with initialDelayString on the same method, processed by the spring-scheduled extension.

Common situations: Migrating Spring jobs where developers added initialDelay to a cron schedule expecting a startup grace period; copy-pasted attributes across schedule styles.

Related errors

• Invalid @Scheduled method '<method>': 'fixedDelay' not suppo
• Invalid '<paramName>String' value "<value>" - cannot parse i
• Failed to open path tree with root %s
• Dev services for ${request.getName()} requires a startable s
• Name cannot start with '/':${name}

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dea99fd58b82a448. Report an issue: GitHub.