Pagination issue in archive.php

Question

I can´t get works fine the pagination in archives for wordpress when i want limite the posts by page , if i let pagination by default as 10 from backend i haven´t problems but if i use this no works

$wp_query->posts_per_page = 5;
if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();

For example in other pages i can limit the posts by page without problems but in archive always have problems for paginate , or give errors 404 in some pages or paginate bad , etc

Thank´s

Answer 1

You should not be setting the posts_per_page value in the template, nor should you be setting the object property directly after the query has run. That is going to cause the object data to become out of sync with itself.

You need to alter that value with a filter on pre_get_posts.

function pregp_archive_ppp_wpse_108225($qry) {
  if ($qry->is_main_query() && $qry->is_archive()) {
      $qry->set('posts_per_page',5);
  }
}
add_action('pre_get_posts','pregp_archive_ppp_wpse_108225');

The precise conditions you need may be different from the above example. You may need, for example, is_page_template() instead of is_archive().

Answer 2

Method 1: You can use pre_get_posts in your functions file to alter the query. This would go in your theme's functions.php file.

function limit_archive_posts( $query ) {
if ( $query->is_archive() && $query->is_main_query() && !is_admin() ) {
        $query->set( 'posts_per_page', 5);
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'limit_archive_posts' );

Method 2: This can also be achieved by placing the following code before the loop in the archive page.

global $query_string;
query_posts("{$query_string}&posts_per_page=5");

---

If you have used with custom post type like 'news' then you can use below code for that.You can use pre_get_posts in your functions file to alter the query. This would go in your theme's functions.php file.

function limit_news_archive_post_type( $query ){
    if($query->is_post_type_archive('news') && $query->is_main_query() && !is_admin()){
            $query->set( 'posts_per_page', 5 );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'limit_news_archive_post_type' );