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Troubleshooting Intuitive Custom Post Order: When Your Front-End Order Doesn't Match

63 threads Sep 10, 2025 Plugin → Intuitive custom post order

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If you're using Intuitive Custom Post Order and finding that your carefully arranged order appears correctly in the WordPress admin but not on your live website, you're not alone. This is one of the most common issues reported by users of this popular plugin. Let's break down why this happens and explore the most effective troubleshooting steps.

Why Does This Happen?

The core function of Intuitive Custom Post Order is to modify the menu_order of posts and then force WordPress queries to use this new order. The disconnect between the admin and front-end typically occurs when another process interferes with or overrides this query modification. Common culprits include:

  • Theme or Plugin Conflicts: Another plugin or your theme's functions.php file might be executing a custom query that specifies its own orderby parameter (e.g., orderby => 'date' or orderby => 'title'), which overrides the plugin's settings.
  • Specific Query Functions: The plugin may not affect queries made by certain WordPress functions like get_posts() or get_adjacent_post() in the same way it affects the main loop.
  • Recent Updates: As seen in threads about versions 2.0.7, 2.0.8, and 3.0.3, updates to either WordPress or the plugin itself can sometimes introduce regressions that break front-end sorting.
  • Caching: Server-level or page caching can serve an old version of the page without the updated post order.

How to Troubleshoot and Fix the Issue

1. Check for Basic Configuration

First, ensure the plugin is configured correctly. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings > Intuitive CPO. Verify that the post types you want to reorder are checked. The 'Autosort' option, when enabled, automatically applies the custom order to the main query without requiring you to add orderby => 'menu_order' to your theme's code.

2. Conduct a Conflict Test

This is the most critical step. Conflicts are the leading cause of this problem.

  1. Disable All Other Plugins: Temporarily deactivate every plugin except Intuitive Custom Post Order.
  2. Check the Front-End: See if the custom post order now appears correctly. If it does, you know a plugin conflict is to blame.
  3. Re-enable Plugins One by One: Reactivate your plugins one at a time, checking the front-end after each activation. When the order breaks again, you've found the conflicting plugin.
  4. Switch to a Default Theme: If deactivating plugins doesn't help, temporarily switch to a standard WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-One. If the order works, the issue is in your theme's code.

3. Inspect Your Theme's Code

If a conflict is found with your theme, look for custom queries. Search your theme's template files (especially archive.php, category.php, front-page.php, and any custom template files) for instances of:

  • new WP_Query()
  • get_posts()
  • query_posts()

These queries may contain an orderby parameter that is overriding the plugin. For the custom order to work, these queries might need to be modified to use 'orderby' => 'menu_order' or to remove the conflicting orderby parameter entirely, allowing the plugin to take over.

4. Consider a Manual Query Adjustment

In some cases, particularly with get_posts(), you may need to explicitly add the menu_order parameter to your query arguments to ensure it works, even with the plugin active.

$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'your_post_type',
    'orderby' => 'menu_order', // Ensure this is set
    'order' => 'ASC' // Usually 'ASC' for intuitive ordering
);
$posts = get_posts($args);

5. Clear All Caches

If your order is correct in the admin but stale on the front-end, clear any caching mechanisms you have running. This includes:

  • WordPress caching plugins (W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, etc.)
  • Server-level caching (Varnish, Memcached)
  • CDN caches (Cloudflare)

6. Try a Version Rollback (Last Resort)

As multiple threads indicate, certain plugin updates (e.g., 2.0.7, 2.0.8, 3.0.3) have historically introduced bugs. If you recently updated and the problem started immediately after, and no conflict is found, rolling back to a previous, stable version of the plugin may be a temporary solution. Older versions can often be found on the Advanced View on the WordPress plugin directory.

By methodically working through these steps, most users can identify and resolve the issue preventing their custom post order from displaying on the front-end of their website.

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