What is the Draft Status in WordPress? #
“Draft” is one of the eight default post statuses available in WordPress. It is possible to create new WordPress statuses if you require more options.
The “Save Draft” link is available when you edit posts in WordPress:
Draft is often confused with the “Pending Review” status. However, these two statuses have different meanings:
- Draft: “This post is not ready to publish. I'm still working on it.”
- Pending Review: “This post to publish. Someone else can approve and publish”.
This guide explains the difference between Draft and Pending Review.
Moving a Published Post to Draft #
Once a post is published, the “Draft” status is the best choice for unpublishing the post. You will not see an “Unpublish” button. Instead, you will be able to click the “Status” link in the sidebar and choose the “Draft” option.
Which users can access Posts in the Draft status? #
By default, any user that can create content can use the Draft status. This means that Contributors, Authors, Editors and Administrators can all move posts to the Draft status.
Users in the Subscriber role have no access to the “Posts” screen.
We don't recommend changing the permissions for the Draft status, because it is a core feature of WordPress.
How to find Draft Posts #
WordPress makes it easy to find your posts in the “Draft” status.
- Go to the “Posts” screen.
- Click the “Drafts” link at the top of the screen.
You will also notice that all posts in the “Draft” status are labelled with “Draft” next to their title.
If you want to see all your posts in the Draft status across all post types, we recommend the PublishPress Planner plugin.
- Go to PublishPress, then “Content Overview”.
- Choose “Pending Review” in the “Post Status” dropdown.
