Why does a meta_query break this WP_Query?

Question

I'm puzzled: why does adding a meta_query array break this WP_Query? No errors shown with debug. I don't know what else to try.

This works fine:

$args = array( 
                'category__in' => array( 24,420,421 ),
                'post_type' => 'post',  
                'post_status' => 'publish',  
                'posts_per_page' => 15,
                'posts_per_archive_page' => 15, 
                'nopaging' => false, 
                'paged' => get_query_var('page'),  
                'orderby' => 'date'
                );

                $args['paged'] = get_query_var( 'paged' ) ? get_query_var( 'paged' ) : 1;
                $the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
                $temp_query = $wp_query;
                $wp_query   = NULL;
                $wp_query   = $the_query;

                if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) :
                while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); 
                $even_odd_class = $the_query->current_post % 2 == 0 ? 'even' : 'odd';

But as soon as I add the meta_query' => array, it breaks halfway through and does not display 15 posts.

 $args = array( 
            'category__in' => array( 24,420,421 ), 
            'meta_query' => array(
                array(
                    'key' => 'featured-checkbox',
                    'value' => 'no', 'meta_compare' => '=' )
                ),
            'post_type' => 'post',  
            'post_status' => 'publish',  
            'posts_per_page' => 15,
            'posts_per_archive_page' => 15, 
            'nopaging' => false, 
            'paged' => get_query_var('page'),  
            'orderby' => 'date'
            );

            $args['paged'] = get_query_var( 'paged' ) ? get_query_var( 'paged' ) : 1;
            $the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
            $temp_query = $wp_query;
            $wp_query   = NULL;
            $wp_query   = $the_query;

            if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) :
            while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); 
            $even_odd_class = $the_query->current_post % 2 == 0 ? 'even' : 'odd';

The (abbreviated) rest of the loop used:

the_content;

endwhile;

the_posts_pagination();

else : get_template_part( 'template-parts/content', 'none' ); endif;

• And, the values of featured-checkbox in the custom fields viewer in WP Admin are yes and no.

Update: Good point re:var_dump; I got

string(562) "SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wpiv_posts.ID FROM wpiv_posts LEFT JOIN wpiv_term_relationships ON (wpiv_posts.ID = wpiv_term_relationships.object_id) INNER JOIN wpiv_postmeta ON ( wpiv_posts.ID = wpiv_postmeta.post_id ) WHERE 1=1 AND ( wpiv_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id IN (24,420,421) ) AND ( ( wpiv_postmeta.meta_key = 'featured-checkbox' AND wpiv_postmeta.meta_value = 'no' ) ) AND wpiv_posts.post_type = 'post' AND ((wpiv_posts.post_status = 'publish')) GROUP BY wpiv_posts.ID ORDER BY wpiv_posts.menu_order, wpiv_posts.post_date DESC LIMIT 0, 15"

and when I run that in the database, I get 7 posts, same as are displayed. But I have 250+ posts in those three categories, and only 2 have the meta_query set to yes.

Answer 1

try to add wp_reset_query() in the end of your query