Troubleshooting & FAQ¶

Events Not Showing Up¶

Problem: No events appear on the page.¶

Check these in order:

Are there events for today's date? Go to Herodotus → All Events and verify that at least one event has today's day and month set.
Are the date fields complete? All three fields (day, month, year) must be set. Look for ⚠ icons in the admin list.
Is the event published? Draft or scheduled events are not displayed. Make sure the post status is "Published".
Check your timezone. Go to Settings → General → Timezone. If your timezone is wrong, "today" may be calculated incorrectly.
Is caching interfering? Try setting the cache TTL to 0 temporarily (Settings → Herodotus → Cache Settings).
Is a full-page cache serving a stale page? Clear your page cache (WP Super Cache, W3TC, etc.) or test in an incognito browser window.

Red Warning in the Editor¶

Problem: A red warning appears in the Herodotus Date metabox.¶

Solution: Set all three fields: day, month, AND year. The warning disappears once all fields have values.

⚠ Icon in the Posts List¶

Problem: Some events show ⚠ instead of a date or year.¶

Solution: Edit those events and set the missing date fields. Events with ⚠ will never appear on the frontend.

Events Show the Wrong Date¶

Problem: Events appear on the wrong day.¶

Check: 1. WordPress Timezone: Settings → General → Timezone. Make sure it matches your actual timezone. 2. Server Time: Your hosting server's clock may be off. Contact your hosting provider if you suspect this.

Images Not Showing¶

Problem: Events don't show images.¶

Check: 1. Is show_image="false" set? Remove this attribute or set it to true. 2. Is there a featured image? If not, the default placeholder should appear. Check Settings → Herodotus → Default Image. 3. Is the image URL broken? Check the Media Library.

Styling Issues¶

Problem: The events look different than expected.¶

Possible causes: 1. Your theme's CSS may override Herodotus styles. Use browser DevTools to inspect elements. 2. Add custom CSS via Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS. 3. Herodotus uses these main CSS classes: - .herodotus-events — container - .herodotus-event-card — individual event card - .herodotus-event-image — image container - .herodotus-event-title — event title - .herodotus-event-excerpt — excerpt text - .herodotus-year-badge — year badge - .herodotus-category-label — category label - .herodotus-compact — compact layout modifier

Duplicate Meta Tags¶

Problem: Seeing duplicate Open Graph or Schema.org tags.¶

Solution: Herodotus auto-disables its meta tags when Yoast SEO, RankMath, AIOSEO, or The SEO Framework is active.

If you use a different SEO plugin, you may need to disable Herodotus SEO output manually. (See Developer Reference for available filters.)

Cache Not Clearing¶

Problem: Old events still showing after changes.¶

Wait for the cache TTL to expire.
Or set cache TTL to 0 temporarily.
The cache should auto-clear when saving events — if it doesn't, check for object caching plugins (Redis, Memcached) that may hold stale transients.

WPML: Events Not Translated¶

Problem: Events don't appear in translated languages.¶

Ensure you've created a translation for each event in WPML.
Date meta fields should be automatically copied — verify in WPML → Settings → Custom Fields.
Check that _herodotus_day, _herodotus_month, _herodotus_year are set to "Copy" in WPML.

Performance Concerns¶

Problem: Page loads slowly with many events.¶

Enable caching — set a non-zero TTL.
Limit events — use limit="10" to cap the output.
Optimize images — use compressed featured images.
Use a CDN — serve images via a CDN.

Common Questions¶

Q: Can I display events from a specific date (not today)?¶

A: The free version displays events for today only (date_mode="today" is the default behavior). Extended date modes — including a fixed date and an "around today" range — are available in Herodotus Pro.

Q: Can I use Herodotus without the Gutenberg block editor?¶

A: Yes. The shortcode [herodotus] works in the Classic Editor and anywhere shortcodes are supported.

Q: Does the plugin work with custom themes?¶

A: Yes. Herodotus outputs clean HTML with well-defined CSS classes. It should work with any properly coded theme.

Q: Can I change the URL slug?¶

A: The default slug is herodotus. Changing it requires code modification in the current version. A settings option for custom slugs may be added in a future release.

Q: Is there a REST API?¶

A: The custom post type is registered with show_in_rest enabled, so standard WordPress REST API endpoints are available at /wp-json/wp/v2/herodotus_post.