I read this in the syslog: T12:41:36.17 systemd[1]: Stopping cron.service - Regular background program processing daemon... T12:41:36.18 systemd[1]: cron.service: Deactivated successfully. T12:41:36.18 systemd[1]: cron.service: Unit process 1084456 (fetchmail) remains running after unit stopped. T12:41:36.18 systemd[1]: Stopped cron.service - Regular background program processing daemon. T12:41:36.18 systemd[1]: cron.service: Consumed 5h 39min 6.551s CPU time. T12:41:36.18 systemd[1]: cron.service: Found left-over process 1084456 (fetchmail) in control group while starting unit. Ignoring. T12:41:36.18 systemd[1]: cron.service: This usually indicates unclean termination of a previous run, or service implementation deficiencies. I have no system-wide fetchmail running, in fact my /etc/default/fetchmail includes START_DAEMON=no I do have a user fetchmail running, with PID 1084456: apparently this is what confuses cron.service Please redirect this report to systemd if it pertains there Thank you for your work, sincerely