Laravel 11 Queue Jobs Not Running After PHP 8.3 Upgrade – Complete Fix

Upgrading to PHP 8.3 can break background job processing in Laravel 11. You will see issues like pending jobs sitting forever, php artisan queue:work not processing, or Horizon staying idle. The root cause is usually mismatched PHP binaries, missing extensions, or supervisor still pointing to an old version. Let’s fix them one by one.

Laravel 11 Queue Jobs Not Running After PHP 8.3 Upgrade

• 1. Confirm queue driver in .env
• 2. Check artisan queue worker version
• 3. Missing PHP extensions
• 4. Database queue issues after upgrade
• 5. Queue worker daemon not restarted
• 6. Supervisor still pointing to old PHP path (Linux)
• 7. Check Horizon workers
• 8. Permissions after upgrade
• 9. Cached config

1. Confirm queue driver in .env

Make sure you are running the right queue system.

QUEUE_CONNECTION=database

Other valid values:

• redis
• sync
• sqs
• database

If you use Redis or database and switch to sync, jobs will run instantly but avoid doing that in production.

2. Check artisan queue worker version

After upgrading, php CLI may still point to the old version.

Run:

php -v

If it is not PHP 8.3, workers are running the wrong binary. Use the correct PHP path when starting the worker:

/usr/bin/php8.3 artisan queue:work

On Windows (XAMPP/WAMP/Laragon):

C:\xampp\php\php.exe artisan queue:work

Restart your terminal after changing PATH.

3. Missing PHP extensions

Queue + cache + redis rely on specific modules. Check them:

php -m

For Redis queues you must see:

redis

If not installed:

Ubuntu / Debian:

sudo apt install php8.3-redis
sudo systemctl restart php8.3-fpm

Windows:
Enable in php.ini:

extension=php_redis

Then restart Apache or Nginx.

4. Database queue issues after upgrade

If using database queue, migrate jobs table:

php artisan queue:table
php artisan migrate

Also verify jobs and failed_jobs tables exist.

5. Queue worker daemon not restarted

Workers don’t auto-update after PHP upgrade. If you use queue:work, stop and restart it:

php artisan queue:restart

This gracefully reloads all workers.

6. Supervisor still pointing to old PHP path (Linux)

Open your Supervisor file:

/etc/supervisor/conf.d/laravel-worker.conf

Example corrected config:

command=/usr/bin/php8.3 /var/www/html/artisan queue:work --sleep=3 --tries=3

Save and restart:

sudo supervisorctl reread
sudo supervisorctl update
sudo supervisorctl restart all

7. Check Horizon workers

If you use Laravel Horizon:

php artisan horizon:terminate

Horizon will restart with the new PHP binary.

Also verify Redis connection in .env:

REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1
REDIS_PORT=6379

8. Permissions after upgrade

On Linux, permission issues can stop workers.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data storage bootstrap/cache
sudo chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

Adjust user accordingly (nginx, ubuntu, ec2-user, etc.).

9. Cached config

After switching drivers or upgrading PHP, always clear cache:

php artisan config:clear
php artisan cache:clear
php artisan optimize:clear

Final checklist

• Correct queue driver in .env
• Verify PHP 8.3 is used by workers, Horizon, and Supervisor
• Install required extensions (redis, pdo, etc.)
• Restart queue workers or Horizon
• Fix OS-level permissions if using Linux
• Clear Laravel caches

Following these steps will get your Laravel 11 queue system running normally again after upgrading to PHP 8.3.