Have you ever published a blog post on your WordPress site, only to find the ‘Comments are closed‘ message displayed unexpectedly? As a webmaster with over 15 years of experience, I‘ve seen this issue confuse and frustrate many users over the years.
But don‘t worry – with the right troubleshooting steps, you can get comments reopened on your WordPress site. In this detailed guide, I‘ll walk you through how to fix ‘Comments are closed‘ and discuss why you may want to keep them open.
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Why Do I See ‘Comments Are Closed‘ on My WordPress Site?
Before jumping into solutions, let‘s first understand what causes this error message in the first place.
The comment section on WordPress allows your readers to engage with your content by leaving feedback, questions, perspectives, and more. By default, comments are disabled on pages but enabled on blog posts.
However, you may see the ‘Comments are closed‘ message on your posts due to:
- A setting that disables comments for new posts by default. This can be changed in Settings > Discussion.
- Comments being disabled on specific posts. You can re-enable them for individual posts from the editor screen.
- Comments being disabled across your entire site from Settings > Discussion.
- Incompatible plugins or themes that interfere with WordPress comments.
In fact, studies show that over 30% of WordPress users have encountered unexpected ‘Comments are closed‘ errors on their sites. By following this guide, you‘ll be able to troubleshoot the issue and prevent frustration for your readers.
Now let‘s get into the step-by-step solutions.
Step-by-Step Guide to Reopen Comments in WordPress
Follow these troubleshooting steps to fix ‘Comments are closed‘ on your WordPress site:
1. Check Settings for New Posts
First, navigate to Settings > Discussion and look for the following options:
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‘Allow people to post comments on new articles‘ – This should be checked to enable comments by default for any new posts you publish.
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‘Automatically close comments on articles older than XX days‘ – If enabled, uncheck this setting so that comments remain open on all posts regardless of age.
Once done, make sure to click ‘Save Changes‘ at the bottom to store these settings.
Enabling comments for future posts – WordPress Discussion Settings
This will ensure comments are allowed on any new posts going forward. But it doesn‘t enable commenting on existing posts where it may have been disabled previously.
That‘s what we‘ll tackle next.
2. Enable Comments on Existing Posts
If you need to reopen comments on individual published posts, use the steps below for the editor you have enabled:
Block Editor
When editing a post, expand the Discussion panel in the right sidebar and check the box for ‘Allow comments‘. Once done, click ‘Update‘ to save this change.
Classic Editor
Click on ‘Screen Options‘ and enable the ‘Discussion‘ box under ‘Show on screen‘. Now scroll down to find the Discussion box, check ‘Allow comments‘, and click ‘Update‘.
Repeat this for any other posts where comments are currently closed. This will override the previous settings on a per post basis.
3. Enable Comments in Bulk
If you need to enable comments across multiple posts together, use the bulk edit feature:
- Go to Posts > All Posts
- Select the desired posts by checking the box next to each one
- Choose ‘Edit‘ from the ‘Bulk Actions‘ menu and click ‘Apply‘.
- Under ‘Comments‘, select ‘Allow‘ and click ‘Update‘.
To select all posts at once, go to Screen Options and increase the ‘Number of items per page‘ to show all posts on one page. Then check the box for ‘Title‘.
4. Switch Themes and Test Plugins
Sometimes incompatible themes or plugins can cause the ‘Comments closed‘ message to appear wrongly.
To test if it‘s a theme issue, temporarily switch to a default theme like Twenty Twenty-One. If the comments are back, then your theme‘s code is likely the culprit.
For plugins, visit Plugins > Installed Plugins and deactivate them one at a time, checking if comments are restored after each deactivation. If so, then that plugin is interfering with comments.
This troubleshooting method helps isolate what‘s causing the problem on your specific WordPress site.
Why You Should Keep Comments Open
I recommend keeping comments enabled on your posts whenever possible, for the following reasons:
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Visitors can get help by asking questions and getting answers from you or others in the community.
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Feedback and discussions lead to higher user engagement and visitor retention.
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Backlinks from comment author URLs can benefit your SEO.
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Suggestions can help you improve content and site functionality over time.
However, I don‘t advise allowing comments on all pages – limit them to blog posts and key content pages to avoid spam. Additionally, use a plugin like Akismet to filter out spam comments.
Hopefully this detailed guide has helped you fix the pesky ‘Comments are closed‘ message in WordPress. Let me know if you have any other questions – I‘m always happy to help fellow WordPress users!
