Posts are not in order – illogical publication date sequence
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I created four blogs for my page and saved as drafts, so that other editors could contribute easily to the content. Over the next couple of days I go back to the drafts and update them, before hitting publish. I created the posts in the order I wanted them to appear and published in this same sequence. I create using the block editor.
However once published the order on the web page is not what I expected. Looking back at the post settings it seems the publication date is actually more like the creation date (and time) for the posts and is not updated for when I hit publish. Normally posts are referenced with their actual publication date when I have created and prompted worked on them and then released straightaway.
So, to try get the sequence I want, I edited the published date field in the already published post, so that the correct chronological sequence appeared in my group of posts. Happily this also then changed the order of the posts in our published webpage.
For reference, scheduling posts seems to work fine with the calendar (and clock)
Questions:
– not sure, is there a rule (page setting?) that sorts posts by actual publication date; or by something else like creation date?
– is there a bug which is not updating the publication date from creation date in some circumstances?
– is there actually a creation date field somewhere separate from a published field, which I can see and track?
Thanks
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hello!
The “edit” option you see in the three dot menu is only available to Staff members. They are the ones who can edit existing posts or comments on a thread.
Regarding your posts, it’s hard to troubleshoot without seeing them in action. However, one possible solution is to schedule the posts to be published a few minutes into the future. This might ensure that they appear in the correct order. Just remember that the most recent post published will be the one shown at the top of your blog posts list.
Another issue could be an incompatibility between the Block Editor and your theme. Your theme was retired in December 2012, long before the development and release of the Block Editor. It might be a good idea to choose a more updated theme for your site. Just keep in mind that if you switch to a different theme, you won’t be able to switch back to your current one, so make sure to check out the theme demos before making a decision.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask us!
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Hi, @staff-heroponrikithanks for the feedback. Unfortunately I don’t understand the first part of the reply at all!
I’ve got some screenshots of what I saw in the posts, but I don’t think I can upload here for anyone to review. Not sure if there’s another way to share?
I hadn’t realised our theme is so old (and out of date), so that might be what’s at issue!! Thanks
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I’ve got some screenshots of what I saw in the posts, but I don’t think I can upload here for anyone to review. Not sure if there’s another way to share?
Absolutely! You can easily add your images here. Simply type “/image” on a new line in your reply, and you’ll be able to add the image that way. Alternatively, if you’re on a computer, you can simply click and drag the image from your desktop directly into the reply window, and it will be added automatically.
We’re excited to see what you have to share, so please go ahead and add the image. Once we have a visual reference, we’ll be able to provide you with better advice. Thank you!
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<u>QUERY</u> – over order in which posts appear in news page online…..
LOGICALLY SEQUENCE SHOULD BE
- MOH 60th (first / oldest) (A)
- Summer worksite tours (B)
- Pete C (C)
- Moseley Old Hall Workday (D)
…I think I initially created in this order
RB hit publish in the following order on
- A, – 25th June
- B, C – 28th
QUERY – Order in posts new page WAS (oldest first)
- C, A, B
Confusingly – the publish dates and times (in screenshots below) are all from 25th – Sunday = are these actually the draft creation dates. But then in a weird order C, A, B. I really don’t think I created in this sequence……
- Going to try to edit these dates (labelled publication) to get the order I want, i.e. just make the Pete C one later???
<u>RESULT</u>
- Has changed the order to the one I want. Don’t know where these publish times above come from??
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Hi there,
Confusingly – the publish dates and times (in screenshots below) are all from 25th – Sunday = are these actually the draft creation dates. But then in a weird order C, A, B. I really don’t think I created in this sequence……
That is correct, when you create a draft, the date of the post is the creation date of the draft. It’s difficult for us to confirm the exact sequence since we do not store that specific bit of activity in our logs, but it seems likely that the post date was set at the time the draft was created for all these posts.
Going to try to edit these dates (labelled publication) to get the order I want, i.e. just make the Pete C one later???
Yes, exactly this. The good news is that you can change the post date anytime you wish (before or after publication) to be in the order you wish: https://wordpress.com/support/schedule-a-post-or-page/
Hope that helps. Please let us know if you have any more questions.
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Hello, @staff-totoro thanks for the feedback. The one strange thing that I don’t understand is why these posts seem to retain the draft creation date, rather than are updated with the actual publication date? When I look back at other posts I have old email notifications of something occurring on the page, so that I can compare the notification time with the time and date in that settings field. It’s pretty much always the same (within minutes) time in both notification and settings date field for other posts, that is publication time. So again, why is this little group different? Thanks.
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Hey there,
Many thanks for that additional information.
The one strange thing that I don’t understand is why these posts seem to retain the draft creation date, rather than are updated with the actual publication date? So again, why is this little group different?
It looks like we may have stumbled across a bug here, and we’ve to an internal report open to monitor this.
It looks like this behaviour is limited to classic themes – or themes that weren’t necessarily built with the block editor in mind.
I also noticed that the theme currently in use is retried, so when a fix is rolled out, this theme wouldn’t necessarily receive the fix as it is no longer supported.
This may be an opportunity to look at a more up to date theme perhaps?
I’m hoping this helps!
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