Close comments on old posts

To help prevent spam, we recommend closing comments on older posts on your blog. This can also help you reduce the API Usage on your account so you do not go over your limits.

Close comments on old posts that are already published

1. Go to Posts -> All Posts in your Dashboard.

2. Select all the posts you want to close comments on, by checking the box next to the post.

3. Select “Edit” from the “Bulk Actions” drop-down menu and click “Apply” to open the bulk editing screen.

4. In the Comments drop-down menu select “Do not allow”. For Pings select “Do not allow” as well. Leave the rest of the options untouched and click “Update” to save your changes.

The bulk editing interface, showing `Do not allow` chosen as the option for Comments and Pings, with an arrow highlighting the *Update* button.
  1. Repeat this process for all posts you wish to disable comments for.
  2. To speed up the process for many posts, click on the “Screen Options” tab at the top right of the screen and change the number of posts to be displayed and click “Apply”. We recommend setting this to a maximum of 100 to avoid any site performance issues.

Close comments on future posts automatically

You can automatically turn off comments on posts a certain amount of time after they are published by following these steps:

  1. Go to WP Admin Settings -> Discussion:
  2. Select the checkbox that says “Automatically close comments on articles older than __ days” under the Other comment settings section.
  3. The default number is 14 days, but you can choose any number that best suits your site’s needs.
  4. Scroll down to the bottom of that page and click “Save Changes” to update that setting.

If you have general questions about Akismet, please contact us.