diff --git a/Plugin/usr/local/emhttp/plugins/varaverk/include/scheduler.php b/Plugin/usr/local/emhttp/plugins/varaverk/include/scheduler.php
index 0ef9c76..a07951d 100644
--- a/Plugin/usr/local/emhttp/plugins/varaverk/include/scheduler.php
+++ b/Plugin/usr/local/emhttp/plugins/varaverk/include/scheduler.php
@@ -1,13 +1,12 @@
 <?php
-// Scheduler — manages schedule.json and /etc/cron.d/varaverk.
+// Scheduler — manages schedule.json and the Unraid plugin cron file.
 // schedule.json is per-host, never synced.
 
 require_once __DIR__ . '/config.php';
 require_once __DIR__ . '/confform.php';
 
 define('SCHEDULE_FILE', '/boot/config/plugins/varaverk/schedule.json');
-define('CRON_FILE',     '/etc/cron.d/varaverk');
-define('CRON_USER',     'root');
+define('CRON_FILE',     '/boot/config/plugins/varaverk/varaverk.cron');
 
 function vv_schedule_load(): array {
     if (!file_exists(SCHEDULE_FILE)) return [];
@@ -65,10 +64,22 @@ function vv_cron_rebuild(array $schedule): bool {
     }
     $lines[] = "";
 
-    // dcron (dillon's cron, Unraid's system crond) reads /etc/cron.d/ but refuses
-    // world-writable files and does not use a username field in system crontab format.
+    // Write to the plugin cron file; update_cron merges all plugin *.cron files into /etc/cron.d/root.
     if (file_put_contents(CRON_FILE, implode("\n", $lines)) === false) return false;
-    chmod(CRON_FILE, 0600);
+    exec('/usr/local/sbin/update_cron');
+
+    // update_cron only picks up .plg-registered plugins. In dev (no varaverk.plg registered),
+    // inject our entries directly into the live root crontab so they take effect immediately.
+    if (!file_exists('/var/log/plugins/varaverk.plg')) {
+        $current  = shell_exec('crontab -c /etc/cron.d -l 2>/dev/null') ?: '';
+        $filtered = preg_replace('/^[^\n]*run_job\.sh[^\n]*\n?/m', '', $current);
+        $ours     = file_get_contents(CRON_FILE);
+        $combined = rtrim($filtered) . "\n\n" . $ours . "\n";
+        $tmp      = tempnam('/tmp', 'varaverk_cron_');
+        file_put_contents($tmp, $combined);
+        exec('crontab -c /etc/cron.d - < ' . escapeshellarg($tmp));
+        unlink($tmp);
+    }
     return true;
 }