I tend to schedule a lot of posts in advance. At least when I get on a roll, that is. But sometimes you schedule a post, then have second thoughts about it being ready to run. I’ve certainly run more than a few posts before I intended to. Here’s how to unschedule a WordPress post.
It doesn’t look like setting the post status to draft actually unschedules it. Looks can be deceiving, so here’s how to be sure.
Unschedule a WordPress post
To unschedule a WordPress post, navigate to Posts > All Posts. Hover over the post you want to unschedule and click Quick Edit. Navigate to Status, then flip the status to Draft. At this point you can click Update, but with a post date in the future, it will remain at the top of your list and look like it might still be scheduled. I recommend you do one more thing. Over on the left, there’s the field labeled Date. Go there and change the date on the post to sometime in the past. It can be a date in the past or even the same day, just earlier in the day than it is now. Then click Update.
Refresh your screen and double check. The post will move down on your list, and remain in draft status. I tend to set any not-yet-ready posts with the same date, to make it easier to find later.
Alternatively, you can edit the post, then change the date and the status from within the editor. But I find it much faster and more convenient to do so from the quick editor. Partly because I tend to review my scheduled posts on weekends and evaluate whether I have any better ideas that I can run this week, I rarely unschedule just one post.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.