cPanel | Slow on first publish (~80 minutes)

Helpdesk cPanel
1

Hello. I’ve set up WPM cPanel to offer SiteJet, which I’m new to. I went through a few steps to test it out, then clicked the rocket icon to publish. The progress bar seems to be sitting at around 10%. I see files every now and then, maybe 30 seconds to a minute apart, before I see any additional logs. Here is the start of the log, which seems like it’s taking a long time to download a site map for a single-page website:

Starting publish …

[2026-04-07 22:11:16 +0000] info [uapi] [0 s] SSL enabled: 1

[2026-04-07 22:11:46 +0000] info [uapi] [30 s] Download sitemap xml:https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io/sitemap.xml

[2026-04-07 22:13:57 +0000] info [uapi] [161 s] Store content for /sitemap.xml

[2026-04-07 22:13:57 +0000] info [uapi] [161 s] Save file /home/starter1/public_html/sitemap.xml

[2026-04-07 22:13:57 +0000] info [uapi] [161 s] Completed status: 10%

[2026-04-07 22:13:57 +0000] info [uapi] [161 s] Prepare request for https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io

[2026-04-07 22:14:27 +0000] info [uapi] [191 s] URI: 'https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io', 200

[2026-04-07 22:14:27 +0000] info [uapi] [191 s] Process response of https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io

[2026-04-07 22:14:27 +0000] info [uapi] [191 s] Store content for https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io

[2026-04-07 22:14:27 +0000] info [uapi] [191 s] Save file /home/starter1/public_html/index.html

[2026-04-07 22:14:27 +0000] info [uapi] [191 s] Done processing https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io

[2026-04-07 22:14:27 +0000] info [uapi] [191 s] Parse assets from all responses that are not known binary formats

[2026-04-07 22:14:27 +0000] info [uapi] [191 s] Prepare request for https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io/css/custom.260408001037.css

[2026-04-07 22:14:58 +0000] info [uapi] [222 s] URI: 'https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io/css/custom.260408001037.css', 200

at the moment (16 minutes later) my tail is still downloading files very slowly

[2026-04-07 22:28:34 +0000] info [uapi] [1038 s] Prepare request for https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io/webcard/static/5093.js

[2026-04-07 22:29:04 +0000] info [uapi] [1068 s] URI: 'https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io/webcard/static/5093.js', 200

[2026-04-07 22:29:04 +0000] info [uapi] [1068 s] Process response of https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io/webcard/static/5093.js

[2026-04-07 22:29:04 +0000] info [uapi] [1068 s] Store content for https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io/webcard/static/5093.js

[2026-04-07 22:29:04 +0000] info [uapi] [1068 s] Save file /home/starter1/public_html/webcard/static/5093.js

[2026-04-07 22:29:04 +0000] info [uapi] [1068 s] Done processing https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io/webcard/static/5093.js

[2026-04-07 22:29:04 +0000] info [uapi] [1068 s] Parse assets from all responses that are not known binary formats

[2026-04-07 22:29:04 +0000] info [uapi] [1068 s] Prepare request for https://inter-cdn.com/images/dummy.png

Is this normal expected behavior for SiteJet on the first publish with cPanel?

2

Welcome @Lewismoten :slightly_smiling_face:

Nope, this is not normal behavior. In your case, it seems to be an issue where the cPanel server is not picking up the files from our server as intended.

The best way now would be to contact your provider who then has to contact cPanel to inspect the issue. I am not able to check on your server.

But please keep us updated here :raising_hands:

3

Thanks for the help. I had to step away for a few hours, and the initial publish eventually completed — total time was about 1 hour 7 minutes.

Today I tested again by changing the mailing address in the footer. That publish completed in about 3 minutes, which is a significant improvement, but still slower than expected for a minor change.

Observations

  • Account size is small (~48 MB)

  • No heavy content or large assets

Network Tests

Outbound connectivity appears normal. All responses are under 1 second:

time curl -I https://preview.sitehub.io → ~0.28s
time curl -I https://inter-cdn.com → ~0.04s

Testing actual asset URLs from the publish log:

time curl -I https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io → ~0.03s
time curl -I https://8e1c99-2de936.preview.sitehub.io/css/... → ~0.03s
time curl -I https://inter-cdn.com/...fonts... → ~0.11s
time curl -I https://inter-cdn.com/...woff2 → ~0.03s

All respond quickly, so this does not appear to be general outbound network latency or DNS-related.

Server Resource Checks (during publish)

  • CPU: ~92–99% idle

  • Disk I/O: w_await ~2.5ms, %util ~0.14

  • Memory: no pressure

  • Disk space / inodes: plenty available

  • uapi process during publish: ~3.9% CPU

No indication of resource bottlenecks.

Remaining Behavior

  • The earlier ~30-second delays per asset appear resolved

  • However, logs still show repeated ETag mismatch → retry (~5 seconds) behavior

  • These retries appear to contribute to the remaining delay

Conclusion

At this point, it appears:

  • Not a network, DNS, firewall, or server resource issue

  • Likely something within the cPanel ↔ Sitejet publish integration, possibly related to retry logic or validation (ETag handling)

Three minutes for a minor content change still feels higher than expected.

Happy to provide additional logs if helpful.

4

I’ve opened a support request with cPanel https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us/requests/95977018

5

This is the response that I received:

Hello Lewis,

This is cP Agent, your AI assistant.

What you’re seeing is not expected as normal behavior. There is a known issue where publishing a website using the Sitejet Builder module can experience significant delays, and it’s currently under investigation. At this time, there isn’t a workaround available.

If the above solution doesn’t work, just let me know and I’ll send your request to the cPanel Support Team.

Regards,
cP Agent

6

Send it through to the cPanel support team. The more people report this, this gets investigated and fixed quicker.

Thank you so much for keeping us up to date!