Cron Expression Out of Range / Invalid Interval — Fix Guide

The Exact Error

Error: value 60 out of range [0..59] for minutes field

Or:

Invalid cron expression: '0 25 * * *'
QuartzException: '8' is not a valid value for hour

Quick summary: A value in one of the cron fields exceeds the allowed range — 60 in minutes, 25 in hours, 8 in day-of-week for standard cron. Each field has a strict numeric range.

Why This Error Happens

A cron expression has 5 (or 6) fields, each with a specific allowed range. If any value falls outside its range, the expression is invalid.

Common causes:

1. Wrong range — 60 for minutes (valid: 0-59), 24 for hours (valid: 0-23).

2. Day-of-week off-by-one — Standard cron: 0=Sunday. Quartz/AWS: 1=Sunday. If you use 8, all implementations reject it.

3. Month confusion — Month is 1-12 in cron (January=1), not 0-11 like JavaScript's Date.getMonth().

4. Step value errors — */0 (zero step) is meaningless.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Step 1 — Map fields to positions

Standard cron (5 fields):

*  *  *  *  *
|  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  +-- day of week (0-7, 0 and 7 = Sunday)
|  |  |  +----- month (1-12)
|  |  +-------- day of month (1-31)
|  +----------- hour (0-23)
+-------------- minute (0-59)

Quartz/AWS (6 fields):

*  *  *  *  *  *
|  |  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |  +-- day of week (1-7, 1 = Sunday)
|  |  |  |  +----- month (1-12)
|  |  |  +-------- day of month (1-31)
|  |  +----------- hour (0-23)
|  +-------------- minute (0-59)
+------------------ seconds (0-59)

Step 2 — Validate each field

# 0 25 * * *
# hour=25 — INVALID! Valid: 0-23

# 0 12 * * 8
# day-of-week=8 — INVALID! Valid: 0-7

Solutions

Solution 1 — Fix out-of-range values

# WRONG:
60 * * * *    # 60 minutes doesn't exist
0 25 * * *    # hour 25 doesn't exist
0 9 1 0 *     # month 0 doesn't exist

# RIGHT:
0 * * * *     # top of every hour
0 23 * * *    # 11 PM
0 9 1 1 *     # 9 AM on January 1st

Solution 2 — Use named days to avoid platform confusion

# Platform-safe: use names instead of numbers
0 9 * * MON     # Every Monday (AWS EventBridge)
@Scheduled("0 0 9 * * MON")  # Spring

Solution 3 — Common correct schedules

*/5 * * * *      # Every 5 minutes
30 * * * *       # Every hour at :30
0 9 * * *        # Every day at 9 AM UTC
0 9 * * 1-5      # Every weekday at 9 AM
0 0 1 * *        # First day of every month at midnight
*/15 9-17 * * 1-5  # Every 15 min during business hours

Quick Reference

Prevent This Error in the Future

1. Use named days and months when supported — MON, TUE, JAN are harder to get wrong than numbers.

2. Always test expressions before deploying. A cron tester shows the next 10 execution times.

3. Store cron schedules in UTC and comment the local time equivalent.

Use ToolNinja to Debug Faster

The Cron Tester lets you paste any cron expression and instantly see the next 10 scheduled run times in both UTC and your local timezone.

🔧 Cron Tester — toolninja.io/tools/cron-tester