$found_posts issues when using WP_Query with meta_compare

Does the query return the correct (4) posts or are there more posts?
How many posts do you set with get_option('posts_per_page')?
is this on a category archive page?

No, the query return the correct posts (4).
I’ve tuned WP to display 9 posts per pages so I normally have only one page, but with the $found_posts returning 32…

Our template designer has desactivated the archive property so we don’t have any archive page…

Can you post the full template file code, see the Forum Welcome on how to post code.

Is this a custom Page template or a Page template?

What does getCurrentCatID() return?

So, it is a custom Page template to display agenda posts…

getCurrentCatID() is a template function :

function getCurrentCatID()
{
  global $wp_query;
  $cat_ID = $wp_query->query_vars[ 'cat' ];

  if( !$cat_ID )
  {
    foreach(( get_the_category()) as $category ) $cat_ID = $category->cat_ID;
  }

  return $cat_ID;

} // getCurrentCatID()

Here is the category custom template file code : https://pastebin.com/kEHzY79C

Thanks !

Try it with this after the wp-paginate function:

<?php wp_reset_postdata(); wp_reset_query(); ?>

It does not change anything : 4 posts, and 4 pages available.

Try it with this pastebin: https://pastebin.com/g22kw035
Be careful for typos because I haven’t tested this on my own site.

Thanks a lot for your help : it works !

It was missing the definition of global $wp_query, but it seems to work perfectly.

If understand well, you :
– backup the wp_query in a temp object
– initialize the wp_query object
– do the query
– exploit datas
– restore the wp_query object to its initial state

Is that right ?

How do you explain that we need to initialize and use directly the wp_query object to correct the problem ?

Thanks a lot for the time you given to help me !

Is that right?

Yes, but…
new WP_Query() is (normally) used for secondary loops. wp-paginate uses the $wp_query object to calculate the pagination. $wp_query->query($args); is essentially the same as query_posts($args); which is normally used to alter the main (paginated) loop. Very confusing, I know ??

An even better way to query posts is by hooking into pre_get_post:
https://www.billerickson.net/customize-the-wordpress-query/
https://developer.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/querying-posts-without-query_posts/
https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/50761/when-to-use-wp-query-query-posts-and-pre-get-posts

I’m glad you’ve got it resolved.