WPBeginner

Beginner's Guide for WordPress

  • Blog
    • Beginners Guide
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Showcase
    • Themes
    • Tutorials
    • WordPress Plugins
  • Start Here
    • How to Start a Blog
    • Create a Website
    • Start an Online Store
    • Best Website Builder
    • Email Marketing
    • WordPress Hosting
    • Business Name Ideas
  • Deals
    • Bluehost Coupon
    • SiteGround Coupon
    • WP Engine Coupon
    • HostGator Coupon
    • Domain.com Coupon
    • Constant Contact
    • View All Deals »
  • Glossary
  • Videos
  • Products
X
☰
Beginner's Guide for WordPress / Start your WordPress Blog in minutes
Choosing the Best
WordPress Hosting
How to Easily
Install WordPress
Recommended
WordPress Plugins
View all Guides

WPBeginner» Blog» Themes» How to Exclude Sticky Posts from the Loop in WordPress

How to Exclude Sticky Posts from the Loop in WordPress

Last updated on September 6th, 2013 by Editorial Staff
41 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share
Pin
Free WordPress Video Tutorials on YouTube by WPBeginner
How to Exclude Sticky Posts from the Loop in WordPress

Sticky Posts are a great way to highlight your featured content. However, there are certain places on your website where you don’t need sticky posts to be on the top. WordPress can not guess this so you need to explicitly tell WordPress to exclude sticky posts from a custom loop. In this article, we will show you how to completely exclude sticky posts from the loop in WordPress, and we will also show you how you can take away the sticky feature of the post, so it still shows in their natural order.

How to take away the Sticky Ability of the Post

When you are displaying most recent posts in a tab, you do not want the sticky posts to stay sticky. If you do not remove the sticky feature, the recent posts area would be useless as all your sticky posts will crowd this area. This is where query_posts feature comes in handy.

To do this you will need to change your loop to something like this:

<?php
$args = array(
	'posts_per_page' => 10,
	'ignore_sticky_posts' => 1
);
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
?>

This code ignores that a post is sticky and shows the posts in the normal order. Using this code your sticky posts will appear in the loop, however they will not be placed on the top.

Sticky posts displayed in normal order

Completely exclude Sticky posts from the Loop

If you are using sticky posts in a slider, then sometimes you might want to completely exclude your sticky posts from the loop. All what you have to do is edit your custom loop to match with this:

<?php
$the_query = new WP_Query( array( 'post__not_in' => get_option( 'sticky_posts' ) ) );
if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
?>

This code will not display any sticky posts in the post loop. For more tips on modifying WordPress themes, check out our WordPress Theme Cheat Sheet for beginners.

Source: WP Codex

41 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share
Pin
Popular on WPBeginner Right Now!
  • How to Fix the Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress

    How to Fix the Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress

  • Google Analytics in WordPress

    How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress for Beginners

  • Checklist

    Checklist: 15 Things You MUST DO Before Changing WordPress Themes

  • Revealed: Why Building an Email List is so Important Today (6 Reasons)

    Revealed: Why Building an Email List is so Important Today (6 Reasons)

About the Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi. Trusted by over 1.3 million readers worldwide.

The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit

12 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. ogunrinde fatai says:
    Feb 21, 2019 at 8:04 am

    I am having similar issue with the broken pagination when removing the sticky post, does anyone has a fix thanks

    Reply
  2. Sam says:
    Sep 21, 2016 at 7:03 pm

    Your code just causes my links to break and i’m not sure why

    Reply
  3. Stephen says:
    Apr 10, 2015 at 6:24 pm

    I am having a problem that the one “sticky” post shows up as the first “featured” post so there is the same article listed twice in succession. Any help would be great.

    Reply
  4. Kyle Shevlin says:
    Jul 2, 2014 at 2:19 pm

    Don’t know if this happened for anyone else, but using this broke the pagination. My next page of posts would be a repeat of the first page. If this happened to anyone else, do you have a fix?

    Reply
    • Umut Kay says:
      Apr 16, 2015 at 4:03 am

      Hi,

      i have the same issue, do you found any workaround or another solution?

      Reply
      • Super Nguyen says:
        Sep 14, 2016 at 9:19 am

        I have the same problem, my navigation on homepage not working

        Reply
  5. Agus Almaula says:
    Apr 7, 2014 at 2:20 pm

    Thank you so much, just because i am totally wpBeginner i came to this site and my WP development solved.

    ~agus~

    Reply
  6. Rut says:
    Feb 24, 2014 at 3:35 am

    Where do I paste this peace of code? I constantly get errors…

    Reply
  7. Daniel Lemes says:
    Nov 5, 2013 at 8:17 pm

    Both methods broke my pagination (page links still there, but load always the same posts), any idea on it?

    Reply
  8. Rohit Tripathi says:
    Oct 6, 2013 at 1:20 pm

    This is really great. One place where you don’t need this is when creating a custom sidebar widget to display recent posts.

    Thanks.

    Reply
  9. Kyle Shevlin says:
    Oct 3, 2013 at 12:12 am

    Is there any reason that adding this would remove the functionality of archives and tag cloud links? I, too, am trying to exclude sticky posts from my main blog loop using one loop to operate a featured section and a second to operate everything else. The trouble I’m having comes when I click on links in an archive section or tag cloud. It redirects me back to my first page again. When I remove this exclusionary code, it works just fine. Can’t figure this one out.

    Reply
  10. chris mccoy says:
    Sep 9, 2013 at 7:47 am

    you can also use pre_get_posts so you dont have to alter your main loop.

    $query->set(‘post__not_in’, get_option(‘sticky_posts’));

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Thanks for choosing to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our comment policy, and your email address will NOT be published. Please Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.

Over 1,320,000+ Readers

Get fresh content from WPBeginner

Featured WordPress Plugin
TrustPulse
TrustPulse
Instantly get 15% more conversions with social proof. Learn More »
How to Start a Blog How to Start a Blog
I need help with ...
Starting a
Blog
WordPress
Performance
WordPress
Security
WordPress
SEO
WordPress
Errors
Building an
Online Store
Useful WordPress Guides
    • 7 Best WordPress Backup Plugins Compared (Pros and Cons)
    • How to Fix the Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress
    • Why You Need a CDN for your WordPress Blog? [Infographic]
    • 30 Legit Ways to Make Money Online Blogging with WordPress
    • Self Hosted WordPress.org vs. Free WordPress.com [Infograph]
    • Free Recording: WordPress Workshop for Beginners
    • 24 Must Have WordPress Plugins for Business Websites
    • How to Properly Move Your Blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org
    • 5 Best Contact Form Plugins for WordPress Compared
    • Which is the Best WordPress Popup Plugin? (Comparison)
    • Best WooCommerce Hosting in 2020 (Comparison)
    • How to Fix the Internal Server Error in WordPress
    • How to Install WordPress - Complete WordPress Installation Tutorial
    • Why You Should Start Building an Email List Right Away
    • How to Properly Move WordPress to a New Domain Without Losing SEO
    • How to Choose the Best WordPress Hosting for Your Website
    • How to Choose the Best Blogging Platform (Comparison)
    • WordPress Tutorials - 200+ Step by Step WordPress Tutorials
    • 5 Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins Compared
    • 5 Best WordPress Membership Plugins (Compared)
    • 7 Best Email Marketing Services for Small Business (2020)
    • How to Choose the Best Domain Registrar (Compared)
    • The Truth About Shared WordPress Web Hosting
    • When Do You Really Need Managed WordPress Hosting?
    • 5 Best Drag and Drop WordPress Page Builders Compared
    • How to Switch from Blogger to WordPress without Losing Google Rankings
    • How to Properly Switch From Wix to WordPress (Step by Step)
    • How to Properly Move from Weebly to WordPress (Step by Step)
    • Do You Really Need a VPS? Best WordPress VPS Hosting Compared
    • How to Properly Move from Squarespace to WordPress
    • How to Register a Domain Name (+ tip to get it for FREE)
    • HostGator Review - An Honest Look at Speed & Uptime (2020)
    • SiteGround Reviews from 4196 Users & Our Experts (2020)
    • Bluehost Review from Real Users + Performance Stats (2020)
    • How Much Does It Really Cost to Build a WordPress Website?
    • How to Create an Email Newsletter the RIGHT WAY (Step by Step)
    • Free Business Name Generator (A.I Powered)
    • How to Create a Free Business Email Address in 5 Minutes (Step by Step)
    • How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress for Beginners
    • How to Move WordPress to a New Host or Server With No Downtime
    • Why is WordPress Free? What are the Costs? What is the Catch?
    • How to Make a Website in 2020 – Step by Step Guide
Deals & Coupons (view all)
Revive Old Post
Revive Old Post Coupon
Get 15% OFF on Revive Old Post WordPress social share plugin.
The Constant Contact logo
Constant Contact Coupon
Get 20% OFF Constant Contact, one of the best email marketing service for small businesses.
Featured In
About WPBeginner®

WPBeginner is a free WordPress resource site for Beginners. WPBeginner was founded in July 2009 by Syed Balkhi. The main goal of this site is to provide quality tips, tricks, hacks, and other WordPress resources that allows WordPress beginners to improve their site(s).
Join our team: We are Hiring!

Site Links
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • FTC Disclosure
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Free Blog Setup
  • Free Business Tools
Our Sites
  • OptinMonster
  • MonsterInsights
  • WPForms
  • SeedProd
  • Nameboy
  • RafflePress
  • Smash Balloon

Copyright © 2009 - 2021 WPBeginner LLC. All Rights Reserved. WPBeginner® is a registered trademark.

Managed by Awesome Motive | WordPress hosting by SiteGround | WordPress CDN by MaxCDN | WordPress Security by Sucuri.