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Understanding WP-PageNavi: Why It Doesn't Work on WordPress Pages and What You Can Do

28 threads Sep 16, 2025 Plugin → Wp-pagenavi

Content

WP-PageNavi is a popular plugin for replacing the default WordPress pagination with a more advanced, numbered navigation system. A common point of confusion, as seen in numerous support threads, is its application on WordPress Pages versus Posts. This article clarifies this distinction and explores potential workarounds.

The Core Issue: Pages vs. Posts

Based on historical support discussions, the WP-PageNavi team has consistently stated that the plugin is not designed to paginate standard WordPress Pages (e.g., 'About Us', 'Services'). Its primary function is to paginate lists of Posts, such as on your blog homepage, archive pages, or category pages.

Why Doesn't It Work on Pages?

The plugin operates within the WordPress Loop, which for Pages typically only contains that single Page's content. There is no list of multiple items to paginate. Paginating a list of sibling Pages (e.g., all children under a parent Page) is a different functionality that is not built into the core plugin.

Common User Questions and Official Stances

  • "View All" Option: The plugin does not include and is not planned to include a "View All" option. The rationale provided is that loading a very large number of posts on a single page can cause severe performance issues and PHP timeouts.
  • Anchor Links: The plugin is not designed to automatically add anchor links (e.g., #content) to its pagination URLs to make the page scroll to a specific location. This would require custom code.
  • Multiple Uses: The plugin can be used in multiple templates on the same website (e.g., in index.php, category.php, search.php), as it works with the main query for those templates.

Potential Workarounds and Solutions

While WP-PageNavi doesn't work for standard Pages out of the box, some advanced users have found methods to achieve similar results:

  1. Custom Page Templates with a Custom Query: The most cited solution is to create a custom Page Template. Within this template, you can create a custom WordPress query (WP_Query) to fetch a list of items (e.g., posts, custom post types, or even other pages) and then use wp_pagenavi() to paginate that custom query. This requires PHP/WordPress development knowledge.
  2. Multipart Pagination: The plugin does work for paginating a single, long post or page that has been split using the <!--nextpage--> tag. You would use <?php wp_pagenavi( array( 'type' => 'multipart' ) ); ?> in your theme's single.php or page.php template.
  3. Alternative Plugins: For paginating a list of WordPress Pages, you may need to search for a different plugin specifically designed for that purpose, as WP-PageNavi's core functionality is focused on post queries.

Conclusion

Understanding the intended use case for WP-PageNavi is key to implementing it successfully. It is a powerful tool for post-based pagination on archive pages but is not a solution for paginating WordPress Page hierarchies. For those needs, custom development or a alternative plugin is often required.

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