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Assign users who should publish independently the built-in Author role—not Editor. Authors can publish and manage their own posts, while the edit_others_posts capability is what allows editing posts owned by someone else. If writers should submit drafts for approval, use Contributor instead; Contributors can manage their own posts but cannot publish them by default.

Choose the role that matches your workflow

Role Own posts Other users’ posts Publishing workflow
Author Can publish and manage their own posts. Does not include edit_others_posts in the default role. Can publish without editorial approval.
Contributor Can write and manage their own posts. Cannot edit other users’ posts by default. Cannot publish by default; an Editor or Administrator publishes the draft.
Editor Can publish and manage their own posts. Can publish and manage posts belonging to other users. Designed for editorial control across authors.

These are the default WordPress role definitions documented in Roles and Capabilities. A plugin or custom code may have changed a role on your site, so treat the built-in definitions as a starting point rather than a guarantee.

Give a publishing author access only to their own posts

  1. Sign in as an Administrator.
  2. Open Users → All Users.
  3. Find the user and click Edit.
  4. In the Role field, choose Author.
  5. Click Update User.

The Author role includes capabilities such as edit_posts, edit_published_posts and publish_posts, but the default role does not include edit_others_posts. WordPress therefore evaluates the author as permitted to edit that user’s own posts, not posts owned by another user.

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Use Contributor for approval-based publishing

Choose Contributor when writers should prepare content but an editor must approve and publish it. This keeps the author boundary while removing the default ability to publish directly. Editors or Administrators can review the draft and publish it.

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Do not use Contributor merely to hide posts in the list: it changes the publishing workflow, whereas list filtering only changes what is displayed.

Why capabilities—not a filtered list—provide the security boundary

The Posts screen offers search, filters, Bulk Edit and Quick Edit. Those tools can make a busy site easier to navigate, and the edit panels can include fields such as Author; they do not grant or revoke permission. The official Posts screen guide describes these interface features.

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WordPress checks the capability for the specific post and context. The key capability for ownership is edit_others_posts: when a user lacks it, WordPress should not allow that user to edit posts owned by someone else. A display-only filter can conceal rows while leaving an underlying permission mistake untouched, so never present CSS, JavaScript or an admin-list filter as an access-control solution.

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Check for plugins and custom role changes

Role-management plugins, membership systems and custom code can add capabilities to Authors or remove capabilities from other roles. Before changing a live role, document the intended workflow and inspect any role or capability customizations. Removing capabilities indiscriminately can break editorial or plugin features that rely on them.

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For a site-specific check, compare the user’s effective capabilities with the default Author definition and verify that the account does not have edit_others_posts through another role or plugin. If a plugin deliberately grants that capability, change its role settings rather than relying on a list-view workaround.

Account for custom post types

Do not assume that the standard Posts permissions apply to every content type. A custom post type can define its own capability_type or explicit capabilities when registered. WordPress derives or assigns the resulting capability names from that configuration; the developer references for register_post_type() and get_post_type_capabilities() document this behavior.

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Ask the developer or inspect the registration code for the custom type. Confirm that it supports authorship when ownership-based checks are expected and identify the exact equivalents of edit_posts, edit_published_posts and edit_others_posts. For a post type without author support, the “other posts” capability can behave like the general edit capability, so the normal Author-versus-Editor assumption may not provide the boundary you want.

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Test the restriction safely

  1. Create or select a non-Administrator test account with the intended Author or Contributor role.
  2. Log in to the test account and create a representative post, then verify the expected draft, publish and edit actions.
  3. Have another user create a post and check that the test account cannot open, update or bulk-edit it.
  4. Check both published and draft posts, because capabilities can differ by status.
  5. Repeat the checks for every custom post type the user needs to work with.
  6. Only after the workflow passes should you apply the role to production users.

Keep an Administrator account available while testing so an incorrect role change can be reversed. Test with a real non-Administrator session; viewing the site as an Administrator does not reveal what the restricted account can actually do.

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Common mistakes

  • Assigning Editor for convenience: this intentionally gives access to other users’ posts.
  • Relying on a hidden row or filtered view: visibility is not authorization.
  • Assuming every content type uses post capabilities: custom registration may use different names or ownership behavior.
  • Editing a shared role without checking dependencies: plugins and custom workflows may depend on its current capabilities.
  • Testing only with an Administrator: Administrators bypass the restrictions you are trying to verify.

When built-in roles are not enough

Use a role-and-capability management plugin or custom code only when the Author and Contributor workflows cannot express your requirements—for example, a custom editorial stage or a custom post type with separate permissions. WordPress’s Roles and Capabilities Plugin Handbook explains the capability model. Define the smallest required capability set, apply it to a dedicated role, and test it against each relevant post type and status.

Quick Recap

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TP-Link AC1200 WiFi Router Dual Band Wireless Internet Router (Archer A54)
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