How do I find my Drafts on WordPress

In WordPress, users can quickly find post drafts on the Posts -> All Posts page. However, some conditions make WordPress disappear post drafts.

In this article – you’ll learn how to find WordPress drafts in the dashboard. Also, you’ll learn about post drafts basics, what triggers drafts’ disappearance in the dashboard, and how to fix drafts-related issues with manual routines.

Introduction to WordPress Drafts

A draft represents an unpublished entry of a page or post in WordPress.

For example, WordPress automatically creates periodic content drafts in the dashboard, visible under All Posts -> Drafts. Users can also save a content draft by clicking Save Draft in the WordPress editor.

When a draft is published, WordPress lists the post under Published. In simple words, WordPress drafts are used to create and edit posts later.

Posts’ Drafts in WordPress disappear for various reasons. For example, poor content management may result in draft disappearance in WordPress. Sometimes, having multiple authors causes WordPress drafts to disappear if access level, ownership, or management is changed for a post in WordPress.

How do I find my Drafts on WordPress

Finding Drafts: WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

There are two platforms for WordPress. The first is WordPress open source, available on WordPress.org, and the second is WordPress.com.

Let’s learn how to proceed and find Drafts on both platforms.

Regarding finding drafts on a WordPress site, we have two options.

1. Drafts on a self-hosted WordPress blog. The open-source WordPress, available on WordPress.org, helps users download the WordPress official package from its official website and manually build a site with WordPress core. The web hosting platforms can also help users run automated installers for WordPress installation.
2. Drafts on WordPress.com’s platform—the site that supports users with WordPress infrastructure, point-and-click interface, Themes, and web Hosting plans—are also available. Users with no knowledge of Technical WordPress can sign up for WordPress.com.

Let’s describe the matter in more detail.

How do you find drafts on a self-hosted WordPress website built with WordPress.org?

The WordPress core package powers a self-hosted blog and is available on WordPress’s official website. A self-hosted WordPress site is created after downloading and installing the WordPress core from the official resource.

Finding a WordPress draft on a self-hosted blog is a matter of clicks. The All Posts page lists all entries created on a WordPress site.

Let’s address other ways to find drafts on a self-hosted WordPress website – WordPress.org.

If you want to find drafts on a self-hosted WordPress site, the Quick Drafts section helps you show or hide post drafts.

Once logged into the dashboard, you can change the screen options for more information – as shown in the screenshot below.

Similarly, a self-hosted WordPress site lists drafts on the pages or post screens. Once you’ve landed on the Pages or Posts screen, the Drafts filter lists post content drafts on a WordPress site.

Note: If your site favors multiple authors, a super user may have changed the ownership of a page or post you created. In this case, the content drafts are removed from your WordPress dashboard and are transferred to the new user account.

Similarly, you should also check WordPress trash for deleted entries. You can find and access the Trash on the Pages and Posts screens.

Finally – you can also find drafts on a self-hosted site with Database entries. In this case, let’s proceed and learn how to find and recover WordPress drafts from a site’s database using Hosting’s cPanel options.

Log into hosting cPanel and locate the cPanel option – PHP My Admin.

Once clicked, you can see a list of your site’s database entries. Choose the one you think is your site’s database.

The list of tables includes one for WordPress Posts. Once clicked, you can see a list of entries on the right-hand side of the screen. Click Edit for the draft you want to recover.

Next, copy the raw content from the window and log into the WordPress dashboard. Create a new post with Code Editor and paste the copied data. When saved changes, you should see a draft with recovered data in the WordPress dashboard.

Note: The above procedure helps you find and restore WordPress drafts in a WordPress database and manage missing draft scenarios without learning to code the WordPress backend.

See Post Drafts with a WordPress Plugin

Specific plugins help users better manage WordPress content – especially for sites with multiple authors.

In this case, Publish Press is an example of a content management plugin. It helps you see WordPress content with historical records using various filters, such as Drafts, Published, or Scheduled.

If finding WordPress drafts is becoming difficult, use the Publish Press plugin. It helps you read WordPress data more efficiently and catches errors preventing WordPress drafts from displaying on screens.

Editorial Calendar, Marketing Content, Kanban Board – PublishPress Planner

You can also use other plugins for the said purpose, such as Quick Drafts Access, Draft List, and Draft Notify. If you have a backup plan, it is better to restore your site’s previous version on a staging site.

How to find Drafts on a WordPress.com website?

Note: The following screenshots show WordPress.com’s interface to this date. WordPress.com is a third-party platform that offers WordPress infrastructure. If you later find the screenshots irrelevant or misleading, follow a similar approach on WordPress.com’s latest infrastructure.

On the other hand – WordPress.com is used to create WordPress-powered sites for free and premium users.

Let’s address – why WordPress.com’s users find WordPress drafts disappeared from relevant pages. Keep in mind that WordPress.com doesn’t help you change various aspects of your account unless an option is available. So, in this case, you’ll need to see and follow if the platform is providing a specific option we need.

WordPress.com has been changing its platform for years. The way it used to list drafts may have changed.

For example – users can find their site’s drafts under WP Admin -> Dashboard. Here, you should see a lead listing your site’s drafts. Similarly, you can look for a similar option, such as finding WordPress drafts on the All Posts page.

Note: When writing this article, you can easily find post drafts on the All Posts page.

Let’s describe how to find WordPress drafts using a different approach.

Once logged into WordPress.com’s dashboard, click the My Sites tab.

The following page contains various options: posts, media, and domains. Scroll down and look for the WP Admin Dashboard option.

Once clicked, the post drafts section appears on the next screen. If, for example, the section is not visible, you can change the screen options at the top, just as you would in a self-hosted WordPress site.

Note: The above routine also works on handheld devices. If you can’t follow on a Desktop, make sure you’re using a mobile browser. For example, you can switch to Chrome on Android if you don’t see the above options on a mobile device.

Once you click on Drafts, you can select a post and load its content in the editor. The next page helps you make changes, edit, publish, or leave the content as a draft.

Note: Some options may not work as defined in this write-up, depending on WordPress.com’s platform. In this case, you should look for a similar option and find drafts on WordPress.com’s platform.

Additional Factors

How to find Trash pages in WordPress?

In WordPress, finding Trash pages is simple. All you’ve to do is:

• Land on the Pages page in the dashboard and see if the Trash section has any pages. Click on Trash to get a list of deleted pages.

In this case, a Trashed page means the removed page. We can also call it the deleted page from WordPress. If you’ve removed a page accidentally, you can also recover the page from the Trash section. However, recovering removed pages may create permalink problems if you’ve recently created new pages with similar URLs. On the other hand, configure proper redirects if permalink issues have been raised.

How do I find my post drafts on Facebook?

Facebook is a social networking platform. Let’s learn how to find post drafts on Facebook.

If you own a personal Facebook account and can’t find post drafts on Facebook, maybe Facebook doesn’t have the option to find personal post Drafts. However, if you’re running a page, selecting the page, then clicking Publishing Tools, followed by Drafts, will help you find post drafts.

Wrapping up

So – how do you find your Drafts on WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

Finding WordPress drafts in a self-hosted site is easy – landing on the All Posts page lists WordPress drafts.

However, WordPress.com – which represents a Hosting company powered by WordPress, comes up with a different story.

In this article, we addressed how WordPress.com’s users can find WordPress drafts and discussed how to solve draft issues on the platform.

Let us know your thoughts if you need more knowledge about WordPress content backups, issues, and performance. We’d love to help you develop results, positive aspects of WordPress, and impacts with maintenance plans.