Lock or Unlock Posts Based on Age and Post Date

Here are few methods to override a post’s membership requirements to members (and non-members) based on specific timeframes you configure. While some of this could be done manually, these functions make the restrictions automatic.

Hide Old Posts to New Members

This existing recipe allows you to hide anything posted prior to a member’s join date. You may want to do this if your content is more serial in nature or if you want members to only receive access to content that comes out while they are subscribed.

Allow Non-Members to View Restricted Posts Based on Timeframe

This recipe to allows a window of time that restricted posts are “unlocked”. This is good for allowing search engines to index your content as well as to entice new members to join by allowing a “taste” of what they will get when subscribing for the full history of content. For example, if you’re a podcaster, you could make your newest content public and your library of podcasts older than 30 days are restricted.

The posts must still be locked to the allowed membership levels, either via a category that is restricted on the level OR specifically via the post’s “Require Membership” settings.

The recipe is designed to open posts from the last 30 days. You can customize this for your own timeframe (7 days, 1 day, etc.).

Unlock Restricted Posts for Non-Members Based on Timeframe

This recipe to removes the membership requirements for posts older than 18 months (or your specified timeframe). This is also useful for sites with a large number of posts to allow the search engines to index lots of content, without giving away access to your newer, more timely articles.

The posts must still be locked to the allowed membership levels, either via a category that is restricted on the level OR specifically via the post’s “Require Membership” settings.

The recipe is designed to open posts that are older than 18 months. You can customize this for your own timeframe (3 months, 6 months, etc.).

Related Posts On Time-Based Content Restrictions

• Allow non-members to view specified restricted posts if they are less than 30 days old. See this code recipe: https://gist.github.com/ipokkel/a17a4c946712b51e103f8668e0213ffa
• Allow non-members to view specified restricted posts if they are less than a specified amount of days old for that specific post. See this code recipe: https://gist.github.com/ipokkel/08e96809a57b94a34e49bc599212ad68
• Allow public access to all restricted posts until a certain date. See this code recipe: https://gist.github.com/andrewlimaza/a0358c84b0dd0860f904622ac49608ca

Adding the Recipe to Your Website

You can add this recipe to your site by creating a custom plugin or using the Code Snippets plugin available for free in the WordPress repository. Read this companion article for step-by-step directions on either method.

Need to Customize Further?

The recipes above could be modified to unlock or lock posts only in certain levels, only to members of other allowed levels or only for posts in specific categories. Premium members can open a topic in our Members Forum for help with these recipes.