How to Disable Autosave in WordPress

May 5th, 2009 | Author: Jim Hutchinson

One thing that bothers me when writing in WordPress is I am interrupted every 60 seconds while the software makes a backup copy of what I have done so far. On a fast connection you will barely notice it, if at all. There are times however, that something along the way slows things down for a while. That can happen anywhere and when it does, the delay disrupts my train of thought.

Other times when I am writing and see that I missed a valuable piece of information, I open a new browser tab and research the issue at hand. While I am gone, WordPress continues to save the document every minute. Each time it makes a copy, a new entry is made in the database. If you write frequently, you will eventually have hundreds or thousands of backup copies.

Having revisions is a good idea sometimes when you are doing things like forms, image alignments, or something out of the ordinary. You can save revisions by clicking the Save Draft button. Then you can have a list to reference in case something goes wrong.

There is no clear way of turning the autosave feature off, so I went hunting for answers. What I found were some good resources and options to turn the autosave off.

Some people will tell you to edit the post-new.php file inside the wp-admin folder and remove the line, wp_enqueue_script(‘autosave’); However, editing any file in that folder is not a good idea since it will be replaced when you update the WordPress core files.

Instead, there are teo methods to eaily stop WordPress from repeatedly saving your work. The first one is by editing the wp_settings.php file with a text editor. Be very careful with this option, since messing anything up in here will cause errors on your blog. Always keep a backup copy of your files before making changes so you can quickly and easily switch back if there are any unwanted issues.

Disable Autosave

1. Edit wp_settings.php
2. Search for: define( ‘AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL’, 60 );
3. Change to: define( ‘AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL’, 9999999 );

Disable Revisions

1. Edit wp_settings.php
2. Search for: $default_constants = array( ‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’ => true );
3. Change to: $default_constants = array( ‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’ => false );

Read comments posted by others on WordPress Support

Disable Autosave and Revisions using a plugin from Exper Chaotic Flow

Once you upload and activate it, nothing else needs to be done, since the confusing part is done for you. Sure it is another plugin to your growing list, but one that can be very useful.

Have you found another solution? Let us know.

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Jim Hutchinson has studied WordPress from both the user and technical angles and now teaches others how to build their website presence using WordPress. Visit Website Managers for more information on Blog Training
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Copyright © 2009 Website Managers, LLC. You may reprint this article providing that this copyright notice and resource links all remain intact.

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