older blog posts not showing in new theme

Question

I have a new, custom theme that I've uploaded on a pre-existing site/blog. Everything seems to be working ok, with the exception of the older blog posts not showing up. Any ideas what I can do to fix?

<?php get_header();?>

<div id="blog-container">
    <?php get_sidebar( 'blog');?>
    <div class="content">
    <?php if(have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) : the_post(''); ?>
        <div class="meta">
            <h3><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></h3>
            <p><span style="font-size:85%"><?php the_tags('tags: ', ', ', '<br />'); ?> | <?php comments_number( 'no responses', 'one response', '% responses' ); ?> comments</span></p>
        </div><!-- end meta -->
        <div class="post">
            <?php the_content('read more...'); ?>
        </div><!-- end post -->
        <div class="share">
            <span class="left-border"></span><!-- end border -->
            <p style="font-family:nevis-webfont;">SHARE THIS POST</p>
            <span class="right-border"></span><!-- end border -->
        </div><!-- end share -->
    </div><!-- end content -->
    <?php endwhile; ?>
    <?php else : ?>
            <p>I'm not sure what you're looking for.</p>
    <?php endif; ?>
</div><!-- end blog-container -->

<?php get_footer();?>

eta Finally got the posts to show by cleaning up the code, however they are now all jumbled. How can I remedy this?

Answer 1

What posts exactly are not shown? In your code there are no page links (pagination). Could it be that you just see the the number of posts according to the respective admin setting?

In addition, I just have been learned NOT to use query_posts. Why would you use it there anyway? Assuming, this is a post-showing template (e.g., index, front-page), you just have to write:

<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
DO YOUR POST STUFF
<?php endwhile; ?>

Answer 2

Get rid of query_posts(). It is causing your pagination problem.

For more detailed information, see this question.

For alternatives when you need to modify the main loop query, or add secondary queries, see this question.

Edit

Based on your edit removing query_posts(), your next issue is that you don't provide any navigation links.

Here's recommended navigation markup from the Codex, using previous_posts_link() and next_posts_link():

<div class="navigation">
<div class="alignleft"><?php previous_posts_link('&laquo; Previous Entries') ?></div>
<div class="alignright"><?php next_posts_link('Next Entries &raquo;','') ?></div>
</div>

See also, this DigWP post on WordPress navigation.