Troubleshoot Reader issues

The WordPress.com Reader lets you discover and follow content from WordPress sites. This guide will help you troubleshoot WordPress.com Reader issues, including missing posts, feed update problems, and navigation difficulties.

Reader automatically checks all subscribed feeds (your followed sites’ content) in the background and updates your content throughout the day. You don’t need to manually refresh Reader to see new posts.

When new content is published, this is when you can expect the new content to appear in the Reader:

• Published on WordPress.com sites: New posts appear almost immediately after they’re published.
• Published on External sites: Feeds are refreshed at least once daily, though timing may vary.

If you notice that a post appears on the original website before it shows up in Reader, this is normal behavior. Reader balances getting you fresh content with being respectful to external websites by not checking feeds too frequently.

Reader displays posts in reverse chronological order (newest first). Since WordPress.com sites update faster than external feeds, you might see:

• Newer posts from WordPress.com sites at the top
• Slightly older posts from external sites appearing below them when those feeds update

This is expected behavior and ensures you see the most recent content first.

Currently, there’s no way to manually refresh individual feeds in Reader. The system automatically manages feed updates to ensure reliable performance for all users.

If you have published a new post and you don’t see it in Reader, use the following steps to verify if the post is appearing in the Reader.

Brand new blogs may take several days to appear on Reader tag pages. WordPress.com reviews new sites to prevent spam before including them in tag page feeds. Your posts will still appear in the personal Reader feeds of people who follow your site.

Your recently published post should appear in your Reader feed shortly after you publish it. You can check your Reader feed by following these steps:

1. Log into your WordPress.com account.
2. Navigate to the Reader by clicking the glasses icon in the top-right of your WordPress.com admin bar (the black bar at the top of your screen when logged in).
3. Use the magnifying glass icon in the top-left to search for your post by title.

Private sites and sites hidden from search engines won’t appear in Reader tag pages or be discoverable by new followers.

1. Navigate to your site’s dashboard.
2. Click Settings → Reading.
3. Verify that your “Site visibility” is set to Public and “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is not checked.

If you are looking for your new post using the Reader tags option, there may be a few reasons why you don’t see the post.

Posts with more than 15 total tags and categories won’t appear on Reader tag pages. This only affects tag page visibility, not your personal Reader feed.

Posts may be excluded from Reader tag pages if they don’t meet content quality standards. These restrictions don’t apply to your personal Reader feed from sites you follow.

Check your posts, focusing on the following:

• Old content: Posts older than 18 months don’t appear in Reader.
• Relevant tags and categories: Misleading or irrelevant tags can result in a temporary exclusion from tag pages.
• Avoid overly promotional content: Posts that are primarily promotional or contain duplicate content may not appear in Reader tag page feeds.
• Mature content: If your blog regularly contains content not suitable for all audiences, it may be flagged as mature and have limited visibility.

Reader tag pages only show posts from blogs whose language matches your account’s interface language (the language you’ve chosen for your internal dashboard and tools). This doesn’t affect your personal Reader feed from sites you follow.

To check if language settings are causing content visibility issues:

1. Hover over your profile at the top right, and select the “My WordPress.com account” button.
2. Click the Account Settings menu option on the left side.
3. Check or change the interface language using the drop-down in the Interface language section.

If you’re having trouble switching between Reader view and your regular blog view, or accessing different areas of Reader, try these solutions.

You’ll find the option to clear your cache in your browser’s settings. We’ve also included links to the most common browsers in our guide on common browser issues.

Browser extensions can sometimes interfere with Reader’s functionality. To identify if an extension is causing issues, follow these steps:

1. Open your browser in incognito or private mode.
2. Try using Reader in this mode.
3. If Reader works properly in incognito mode, return to normal browsing mode and disable browser extensions one by one to identify which extension is causing the conflict.
4. Once you identify the problematic extension, keep it disabled or contact the extension developer for support.

In incognito or private mode, most browser extensions are automatically disabled, which helps isolate whether an extension is causing the problem.