Why won't draft listings appear for non-admins?

Question

I have a draft post with the author set to 5. User #5 is trying to view that draft on the front end using a WP_Query with the following arguments:

array {
  ["name"]=> "example-52f00a8ba19f4"
  ["post_status"]=> array {
    [0]=> "draft"
    [1]=> "private"
  }
  ["post_type"]=> "customlisting"
  ["posts_per_page"]=> 1
  ["author"]=> 5
}

The user trying to view this is user #5. They are trying to view their own draft post, so that they can publish it... (on the front end)

The SQL query that is available in $wp_query->request does in fact return the listing (screenshot from HeidiSQL). But it does not appear in $wp_query->posts, and it seems WP_Query is removing it after the actual SQL query.

How can I prevent WP_Query from removing this? I don't know where to look. I don't know why it's happening either :/

Update: It seems the query only fails if searching by post name. It works by post ID (post__in, rather).

Answer 1

There is indeed processing in WP_Query which might prevent posts from displaying if they are not simply public.

Since there are several conditions there it is a little hard to guess why it fails in your specific case. It might be issue with how permissions are setup or some edge case (which querying for non-public posts is full of).