Pagination – showing 404 on last page when multiple posts saved as drafts

<section class="aggregate" id="cocktails">
    <div class="aggregate__container--wrapper">       
<?php $args = array(
            'post_type' => 'cocktails',
            'posts_per_page' => 8,
            'paged' => get_query_var('paged'),
            'post_status' => 'publish',
        );
        $the_query = new WP_Query($args);
        ?>
        <?php if ($the_query->have_posts()) : while ($the_query->have_posts()) : $the_query->the_post(); ?>
        <?php get_template_part('global-templates/cocktail'); ?>
        <?php endwhile; 
        ?>

    </div>
    <div class="pagination">
       <?php $total_pages = $the_query->max_num_pages;

        if ($total_pages > 1) {

        $current_page = max(1, get_query_var('paged'));

        echo paginate_links(array(
        'base' => get_pagenum_link(1) . '%_%',
        'format' => '/page/%#%',
        'current' => $current_page,
        'total' => $total_pages,
        'prev_text' => __('<'),
        'next_text' => __('>'),
        ));
        } else ; ?><?php endif; ?>

        <?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>
    </div>
</section>

Hi,
There’s something else which mess with default query, try to disable other plugin one by one to see which produce the issue.
It can be also the theme too, see if switching to another one makes a fix.

Thanks

So far THIS has helped me! Guess it wasn’t the plugin after alL! Thank you.

https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/298767/pagination-page-2-displaying-404-on-archive-pages