Why are the comments disabled by default on my custom_post_types?

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I am using a custom post type + taxonomies in a podcast solution for a client. The setting (settings >> discussion) for comments is set to “allow comments”. When I add / edit posts under the “posts” tab, comments are enabled by default.

However, when I add / edit posts under the custom post type (podcast) – comments are disabled by default.

The user can still manually enable comments for each post, but this is obviously not ideal. Thoughts?

UPDATE: Relevant Code in functions.php

function create_my_post_types() {
    register_post_type( 'podcast',
        array(
            'labels' => array(
                'name' => __( 'Podcast' ),
                'singular_name' => __( 'Podcast' ),
                'new_item' => __( 'New Episode' ),
                'add_new_item' => __( 'Add New Episode' )
            ),
            'public' => true,
            'hierarchical' => true,
            'menu_icon' => get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/assets/podcast-icon.png', // 16px16
            'menu_position' => 9,
            'supports' => array( 'title', 'editor', 'comments', 'post-templates'),
            'register_meta_box_cb' => 'add_podcast_metaboxes' // This registers the metabox that we'll add later.
        )
    );
}

4 s
4

Ok – so I solved this. Here is what appears to be the problem.

Comments are disabled by default for custom-post-types. This happens even if
you have them enabled in the overall settings

To fix it, all I had to do was the following:

  1. In SETTINGS > DISCUSSION uncheck the “Allow people to post comments on new articles” setting.
  2. Click “Save Changes”
  3. Now go back and re-check “Allow people to post comments on new articles”
  4. Click “Save Changes”

It seems that for custom post types you need to kind of kick-start this setting. All new posts for created custom-post-types will have the box enabled by default. Existing posts will retain their previous setting. I’m assuming it’s the same for allowing trackbacks. Hopefully this helps someone…

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