“Automatically close comments” keeps resetting and turning comments off

  • I want comments to remain enabled on my posts indefinitely, but every once in a while I notice that comments are disabled on old posts. When I look in the WordPress settings, the “Automatically close comments on articles older than 28 days” option is checked. I uncheck it, to enable comments, but then it magically gets checked again later, perhaps during the next auto-update? I’ve even tried getting around this by changing the 28 to something larger but it resets to 28 as well.

    Please fix this bug — WP updates shouldn’t affect settings like this!

    DISCLAIMER AND APOLOGY: I first posted about this here almost three months ago, but have gotten no solution, probably due to a poorly-worded topic (which I can’t seem to edit), so I’m reposting today with a better topic

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)
  • Moderator t-p

    (@t-p)

    When I look in the WordPress settings, the “Automatically close comments on articles older than 28 days” option is checked. I uncheck it, to enable comments, but then it magically gets checked again later

    This is not the default behavior of the WP core.

    To troubleshoot any plugin/theme conflict, try:
    – deactivating ALL (yes all) plugins temporarily to see if this resolves the problem (plugin functions can interfere). If this works, re-activate them individually (one-by-one) to find the problematic plugin(s).
    – switching to the unedited default Theme (Twenty Seventeen.) for a moment using the WP dashboard to rule out any theme-specific issue (theme functions can interfere like plugins).

    Thread Starter snadra

    (@snadra)

    Thanks for the reply, t-p. Unfortunately, this problem exists randomly, sometimes after days or weeks, and I can’t recreate it at will. I won’t be able to leave my plugins off or switch themes for that long, and I wouldn’t really know if it’s fixed or just hasn’t happened yet :/

    Regardless, I’m glad to hear it’s not part of the WP core. I will poke around online and see if this is a known bug in any of the plugins I have.

    I have exactly the same issue. I can’t tell what is causing the “Automatically close comments on articles older than” setting to reset itself on, and to 28 days. I have repeatedly tried switching it off of course, but it just comes back on after some random interval (days, weeks, months). I have tried changing 28 days to 99999 days, but it just resets itself to 28 days.

    I have resorted to checking my dashboard DAILY to see if I need to reset it manually.

    I am using GeneratePress theme.

    Moderator t-p

    (@t-p)

    side not to @barryemma,

    If the troubleshooting already posted made no difference for you, then, as per the Forum Welcome, please post your own topic.

    Thread Starter snadra

    (@snadra)

    Hey t-p, any chance you can tell me where WordPress stores the setting itself? If you can give me a database field name or a file name, maybe I can grep my plugins and see if I can find anywhere referencing it.

    Moderator t-p

    (@t-p)

    wp_options : This table contains most of your WordPress site wide settings such as: site url, admin email, default category, posts per page, time format, and much much more. The options table is also used by numerous WordPress plugins to store plugin settings.

    For more info, try reviewing:
    https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Database_Description

    https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-wordpress-database-management-with-phpmyadmin/

    Thread Starter snadra

    (@snadra)

    Thanks, t-p. I found the database fields close_comments_for_old_posts and close_comments_days_old. I grepped for these fields in all of my plugins (and themes) and they aren’t in there anywhere. I also searched for wp_options in my plugins and it’s not in any of them either.

    Snadra, did you solve this? I have the same problem.

    I had the same problem here for a few months now.
    Tried changing the number of days to 1000000, worked for a while, then i don’t know why, it keeps switching back to closing comments after 28 days.
    I have had this blog (psbackpacker.com) on wp.org for about 2 yrs now, this never happened before! Started somewhere around this summer i think!
    Please help!

    Moderator t-p

    (@t-p)

    @psbackpacker,

    If you noticed this thread is over 4 months old.

    If the troubleshooting already posted made no difference for you, then, as per the Forum Welcome, please post your own topic.

    Thread Starter snadra

    (@snadra)

    Thiefhunter, I have not resolved this problem yet, and it is still an open issue.

    Hi @t-p !
    If we all have the same problem and it isn’t fixed, why should we start a million different threads…?

    Moderator t-p

    (@t-p)

    Side note to @psbackpacker,

    Despite any similarity in symptoms, your issue is likely to be completely different because of possible differences in physical servers, accounts, hosts, plugins, theme, configurations, etc. Thus one problem, on one setup is not indicative of the functionality and reliability of an application as a whole.

    Also, that way you stand a good chance of getting the assistance you want.

    Thread Starter snadra

    (@snadra)

    t-p, so you think it’s likely that there is more than one different bug/issue causing the same WordPress setting to be randomly reset for multiple people?

    @snadra – Thanks for posting this issue! I am seeing the exact same problem. Also like you, the troubleshooting option given here is for me unworkable. So I have opened a new topic here.

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Bodhi. Reason: add link to new post
Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)
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