WordPress custom post type archive-<post type>.php not working

Question

New to WordPress, I've been trying to create an archive page for a custom post type, and when I click the link to localhost/websitename/wordpress/archive-event.php I get a 404. Here is my code to register the post type:

add_action('init', 'event_register');

function event_register() {

    $labels = array(
        'name' => _x('Events', 'post type general name'),
        'singular_name' => _x('Event', 'post type singular name'),
        'add_new' => _x('Add New', 'event'),
        'add_new_item' => __('Add New Event'),
        'edit_item' => __('Edit Event'),
        'new_item' => __('New Event'),
        'view_item' => __('View Event'),
        'search_items' => __('Search Events'),
        'not_found' =>  __('Nothing found'),
        'not_found_in_trash' => __('Nothing found in Trash'),
        'parent_item_colon' => ''
    );

    $args = array(
        'labels' => $labels,
        'public' => true,
        'publicly_queryable' => true,
        'show_ui' => true,
        'query_var' => true,
        'rewrite' => array('slug' => 'event'),
        'has_archive' => 'event',
        'capability_type' => 'post',
        'hierarchical' => false,
        'menu_position' => null,
        'supports' => array('title','editor','thumbnail'),
    ); 

    register_post_type( 'event' , $args );

}

I've tried having rewrite => true, has_archive => true, flushing the rewrite rules, and even registering a taxonomy for the post type. single-event.php works fine. What now?

Do you use any specific Theme framework? Some theme-framework rewrites the usual hierarchy a bit. For example Roots — Lenin
Done. Still doesn't work. I feel like there has to be something basic I'm doing wrong. Do I have to create taxonomies or categories for this to work? I have created an archive-event.php page by saving over the archive.php file, and I haven't made any changes. I guess I thought that it would work the same way as the single-event.php file, is this wrong? — Ryan McGarvey

Michael Giovanni Pumo Michael Giovanni Pumo · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-17T09:16:07

Only two things required for custom post type archive page.

1) has_archive should be true

2) You need to flush the permalink cache once after code update.

functions.php

function my_custom_posts() {

    $labels = array(

        'name'               => _x( 'Events', 'post type general name' ),
        'singular_name'      => _x( 'Event', 'post type singular name' ),
        'add_new'            => _x( 'Add New', 'event' ),
        'add_new_item'       => __( 'Add New Event' ),
        'edit_item'          => __( 'Edit Event' ),
        'new_item'           => __( 'New Event' ),
        'all_items'          => __( 'All Events' ),
        'view_item'          => __( 'View Event' ),
        'search_items'       => __( 'Search Events' ),
        'not_found'          => __( 'No events found' ),
        'not_found_in_trash' => __( 'No events found in the Trash' ), 
        'parent_item_colon'  => '',
        'menu_name'          => 'Events'

    );

    $args = array(

        'labels'        => $labels,
        'description'   => 'Holds our events and event specific data',
        'public'        => true,
        'menu_position' => 5,
        'supports'      => array( 'title' ),
        'has_archive'   => true, // only this is required to enable archive page else 404 error will occur
        'publicly_queryable' => true,
        'show_ui' => true,
        'query_var' => true,
        'rewrite' => array('slug' => 'events', 'with_front' => true),
        'capability_type' => 'post',
        'hierarchical' => false,

    );

    register_post_type( 'event', $args );   
    //flush_rewrite_rules();

}

add_action( 'init', 'my_custom_posts' );

Default archive.php will work but if you wish to overwrite default one, you have to use a proper archive template archive-<custom_post_slug>.php, e.g.

archive-events.php

Also, if you're just registering your post type, you will need to flush the permalink cache. Do this by changing permalink structure in to Wordpress admin.

Now you can access archive page https://domain/post_slug/

Note: if you choose Numeric in permalink structure url would be https://domain/archives/post_slug/

WordPress custom post type archive-<post type>.php not working

5 Answers