I have no idea why but the EssentialsX hook to check for AFK players has suddenly started throwing this error out of the blue:

[13:22:12] [Craft Scheduler Thread - 78/WARN]: [Autorank] Plugin Autorank v4.3.3 generated an exception while executing task 56681 java.lang.NullPointerException: null at me.staartvin.plugins.pluginlibrary.hooks.EssentialsXHook.isAFK(EssentialsXHook.java:92) ~[?:?] at me.armar.plugins.autorank.hooks.DependencyManager.isAFK(DependencyManager.java:107) ~[?:?] at me.armar.plugins.autorank.playtimes.UpdateTimePlayedTask.run(UpdateTimePlayedTask.java:53) ~[?:?] at org.bukkit.craftbukkit.v1_15_R1.scheduler.CraftTask.run(CraftTask.java:84) ~[patched_1.15.2.jar:git-Paper-260] at org.bukkit.craftbukkit.v1_15_R1.scheduler.CraftAsyncTask.run(CraftAsyncTask.java:54) ~[patched_1.15.2.jar:git-Paper-260] at com.destroystokyo.paper.ServerSchedulerReportingWrapper.run(ServerSchedulerReportingWrapper.java:22) ~[patched_1.15.2.jar:git-Paper-260] at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149) [?:1.8.0_242] at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624) [?:1.8.0_242] at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748) [?:1.8.0_242]

There were no changes to any Autorank settings or paths any time recently before this. Any clue what could be going wrong here?

This seems to have fixed it, thanks.

It seems you were running an experimental version. I found that bug a few evenings ago and I fixed it. Try this new build and let me know if it worked for you: http://staartvin.com:8080/job/Autorank/82/