Why are my wp_query args being ignored if post_type = CPT

Question

I have a few different CPTs setup; 'jobs', 'events', 'products'. They are being displayed on various pages of the site, in sidebar or footer areas.

Using the following code, my CPT gets output, but all $args are ignored except 'post_type'. Posts are output as if 'posts_per_page' => -1.

If I leave 'post_type' empty, then blog posts are loaded and all of the args work as expected.

I have the same problem no matter which CPT I use for 'post_type'. Example of 'jobs' below:

<?php
$args = array(         
    'post_type' => 'jobs', 
    'posts_per_page' => 3,
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'order' => 'DESC',
    'orderby' => 'menu_order'
);
$wp_query = new WP_Query($args);
while ( $wp_query->have_posts() ) : $wp_query->the_post();
?>
    
// POST CONTENT
    
<?php endwhile; wp_reset_query(); ?>

CTP's are setup as follows:

add_action( 'init', 'm_jobs_init' );

function m_jobs_init() {
$labels = array(
    'name'               => __( 'Jobs' ),
    'singular_name'      => __( 'Job' ),
    'menu_name'          => __( 'Jobs' ),
    'name_admin_bar'     => __( 'Jobs' ),
    'add_new'            => __( 'Add Job' ),
    'add_new_item'       => __( 'Add New Job' ),
    'new_item'           => __( 'New Job' ),
    'edit_item'          => __( 'Edit Job' ),
    'view_item'          => __( 'View Job' ),
    'all_items'          => __( 'All Jobs' ),
    'search_items'       => __( 'Search Jobs' ),
    'parent_item_colon'  => __( 'Parent Job' ),
    'not_found'          => __( 'No Jobs Found' ),
    'not_found_in_trash' => __( 'No Jobs Found in Trash' ),
);

$args = array(
    'labels'             => $labels,
    'public'             => true,
    'publicly_queryable' => true,
    'show_ui'            => true,
    'show_in_menu'       => true,
    'show_in_nav_menus'  => true,
    'query_var'          => true,
    'rewrite'            => array( 'slug' => 'jobs' ),
    'capability_type'    => 'post',
    'has_archive'        => true,
    'hierarchical'       => true,
    'menu_position'      => null,
    'supports'           => array( 'title', 'editor', 'author', 'thumbnail', 'excerpt', 'page-attributes','post-formats' )
);

register_post_type( 'jobs', $args );
}

Additional notes as below:

I have one pre_get_posts filter that changes the output on the archive page. I tried removing that but nothing changed with this query.

I've also been through and checked any other wp_query loops are closing with wp_reset_postdata(); but to no avail.

I've also run var_dump($wp_query); which I can see doesn't look right, but not sure where errors are coming from. A truncated version reads:

object(WP_Query)[8153]
  public 'query' => 
    array (size=5)
      'post_type' => string 'jobs' (length=4)
      'posts_per_page' => int 3
      'post_status' => string 'publish' (length=7)
      'order' => string 'DESC' (length=4)
      'paged' => int 1
  public 'query_vars' => 
    array (size=65)
      'post_type' => string 'jobs' (length=4)
      'posts_per_page' => int -1
      'post_status' => string 'publish' (length=7)
      'order' => string 'ASC' (length=3)
      'paged' => int 1

Where does this second block of data come from? This has 'posts_per_page' => int -1 and 'order' => string 'ASC' which looks like it might be the cause of the issue.

Answer 1

I found the problem, thanks to @vancoder for the tip!

I have pre_get_posts attached to a function for alphabetizing product posts, which was causing everything else to be out of whack. It should have been targeting only products!

/***************************************************************
 * Change Archive sorting
 * https://codex.wordpress.org/Alphabetizing_Posts
***************************************************************/

function course_dir_sort_order( $query ) {
    if ( $query->is_archive('products') ) {
        $query->set( 'orderby', 'title' );
        $query->set( 'order', 'ASC' );
        $query->set( 'posts_per_page', '-1' );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'course_dir_sort_order' );