Exclude a category of posts in author template

Question

I'm using the following author archive code:

<?php
/**
* The template for displaying Author Archive pages.
*
* @package Cryout Creations
* @subpackage Parabola
* @since Parabola 1.0
*/

get_header(); ?>

    <section id="container" class="<?php echo parabola_get_layout_class(); ?>">
        <div id="content" role="main">
        <?php cryout_before_content_hook(); ?>

        <?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>

            <?php
                /* Queue the first post, that way we know
                 * what author we're dealing with (if that is the case).
                 *
                 * We reset this later so we can run the loop
                 * properly with a call to rewind_posts().
                 */
                the_post();
            ?>

            <header class="page-header">
                <h1 class="page-title author"><?php printf( __( 'Author Archives: %s', 'parabola' ), '<span class="vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="' . esc_url( get_author_posts_url( get_the_author_meta( "ID" ) ) ) . '" title="' . esc_attr( get_the_author() ) . '" rel="me">' . get_the_author() . '</a></span>' ); ?></h1>
            </header>

            <?php
                /* Since we called the_post() above, we need to
                 * rewind the loop back to the beginning that way
                 * we can run the loop properly, in full.
                 */
                rewind_posts();

            // If a user has filled out their description, show a bio on their entries.
            if ( get_the_author_meta( 'description' ) ) : ?>
            <div id="author-info">
                <div id="author-avatar">
                    <?php echo get_avatar( get_the_author_meta( 'user_email' ), apply_filters( 'parabola_author_bio_avatar_size', 60 ) ); ?>
                </div><!-- #author-avatar -->
                <div id="author-description">
                    <h2><?php printf( __( 'About %s', 'parabola' ), get_the_author() ); ?></h2>
                    <?php the_author_meta( 'description' ); ?>
                </div><!-- #author-description  -->
            </div><!-- #entry-author-info -->
            <?php endif; ?>

            <?php /* Start the Loop */ ?>
            <?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

                <?php
                    /* Include the Post-Format-specific template for the content.
                     * If you want to overload this in a child theme then include a file
                     * called content-___.php (where ___ is the Post Format name) and that will be used instead.
                     */
                    get_template_part( 'content/content', get_post_format() );
                ?>

            <?php endwhile; ?>

            <?php if($parabola_pagination=="Enable") parabola_pagination(); else parabola_content_nav( 'nav-below' ); ?>

        <?php else : ?>

            <article id="post-0" class="post no-results not-found">
                <header class="entry-header">
                    <h1 class="entry-title"><?php _e( 'Nothing Found', 'parabola' ); ?></h1>
                </header><!-- .entry-header -->

                <div class="entry-content">
                    <p><?php _e( 'Apologies, but no results were found for the requested archive. Perhaps searching will help find a related post.', 'parabola' ); ?></p>
                    <?php get_search_form(); ?>
                </div><!-- .entry-content -->
            </article><!-- #post-0 -->

        <?php endif; ?>

        <?php cryout_after_content_hook(); ?>
        </div><!-- #content -->
    <?php parabola_get_sidebar(); ?>
    </section><!-- #primary -->


<?php get_footer(); ?>

I need to exclude a category from the author page. However I can't get this to work.

If added

query_posts (query_posts( 'cat=-x' ); where x is category to skip), 

instead of looping through posts I always see one single/same post which is not of selected category.

Any suggestions, why this might not work?

Answer 1

Never use query_posts, use pre_get_posts to modify any main query.

function wpd_exclude_author_category( $query ) {
    if ( $query->is_author() && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        $query->set( 'category__not_in', array( 42 ) );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'wpd_exclude_author_category' );