What is the Private status in WordPress? #

“Private” is one of eight post statuses available in WordPress. A post in the Private status is only viewable only to WordPress users at the Administrator and Editor user roles.


How to use the Private status #

  • When you are editing a post, look for the “Visibility” area in the right sidebar. Click the “Public” link.
  • Click the “Private” option.
Visibility Link
Visibility Link
  • WordPress will now ask you “Would you like to privately publish this post now?”. Click the “OK” option.
Privately Publish
Privately Publish

This post will now be completely hidden from any user who is not in the Administrator or Editor roles.

In the WordPress admin area, this post will be completely hidden.

On the front end of the site, anyone who does not have access will receive a “Page Not Found” message. Even if they know the URL of the post, they will see no acknowledgment that the posts exists.


Images and Files in Private posts #

Please be careful with the media used in Private posts. WordPress only restricts access to the post. Images and Files permissions are treated differently.

Images and files in Private posts can be publicly visible and can also be found by people with access to your Media Library. The best solution to this is the PublishPress Permissions Pro plugin that can extend restrictions from posts to media items in that post.