Slug/Permalink keeps changing automatically

*bump

I just had something similar on one of my sites. A page called USA had the slug usa. But when I edited the page and updated it, it change the page slug to the slug of a post, in the USA category, with a -2 at the end.

I change it back to USA and it is OK until I change something and update again, when it picks another post slug for the permalink.

This is weird.

I just notice a common thing. The page name is the name of a category in both our cases…

I have a similar problem as well. Every time I Update a page, the permalink is changed to that of an existing post and if I attempt to reach my page via its intended permalink in the frontend, I get a 404.

A few other observations:

• Once the permalink is changed, the page even lists the revisions from the post that it is pulling the permalink from, while still retaining the correct page content.
• This only appears to affect pages and not posts.
• I have to manually keep editing the permalink to in order to keep it what it should when updating a page.
• I only noticed the glitch after my staging site automatically updated to WordPress 4.3.1 from 4.3. However since I don’t need to edit pages frequently as opposed to posts, the glitch could possibly have started in WP 4.3. A previous version of the site at WP 4.2.5 does not exhibit this problem.

Have either of you been able to determine the cause and/or how to resolve the problem?Changing the Settings > Permalinks setting in WP and then back didn’t resolve the issue for me.

UPDATE: I posted this to another forum discussion with a similar permalinks problem and wanted to include it here.

I finally managed to determine the glitch with my setup. There is a compatibility issue with the combination of plugins Facebook Thumb Fixer (1.5.1), W4 Post Lists (2.0.7), and WordPress 4.3.1 (possibly starting with 4.3) that create the permalink issue with my client’s site.

Through a laborious process of elimination (including with all other plugins deactivated & with a default WP theme), the following conditions create the permalinks glitch:
– Using WordPress 4.3.1 (possibly starting with 4.3).
– Facebook Thumb Fixer plugin activated.
– W4 Post Lists plugin activated.
– Have/create a few posts.
– Create a custom post list with the W4 Post Lists plugin.
– Have/create a page with pretty permalink.
– Add the shortcode for the custom post list (example: [postlist id=123]) and Update page.
– The page permalink is automatically changed to the permalink of one of the posts instead.

A previous version of the site on WP 4.2.5 with the same versions of those two plugins, did not create the glitch. So something has changed from the earlier WP version that is incompatible with those plugins in this situation.

If there is no custom post list shortcode on the page, then there is no permalink issue. But since being able to create custom post lists with W4 Post Lists is essential for my client’s site, my only choice is to disable Facebook Thumb Fixer. This may not be the answer for you guys, but perhaps this can focus your investigation and point you in the right direction.

Same problem. WP 4.3.1 keeps enforcing a -3 suffix on page names – no name conflicts anywhere is the first page added.

They broke it – not a good release.

This is a bit more serious than I thought as I am using X themes Cornerstone editor. Page name keeps flipping back to some strange format (not even a default setting) i.e ‘page name-random number’. It loses the page setup for the page I am editing – i.e. reverts to default and not the Blank Container | Header Footer template.

similar issue here. Page url reverts to the url of a post, I change it back and reset the page layout options and it saves fine. As soon as I edit the page in any way, page setup lost and url reverts back to the post permalink.

The only pages this occurs on is pages with a custom post shortcode on them.

Happens for me too. It always changes the slug to the name of my furthest-in-the-future scheduled post, with a numerical suffix. So if my existing post is ‘present’, and the post I have scheduled for say six days in the future (with another post in between) is ‘future’, the slug name changes to ‘future-2’

I used to think it was related to series link editing plugins, but it’s not; it happens even when these are deactivated.

But I have a workaround – put in the correct slug under ‘quick edit’ and then don’t touch it again, or if you do, re-edit the slug in Quick Edit again. This is a really annoying glitch which has even made me lose content.

Solved this. Turns out one of my plugins – ‘Scheduled Posts Calendar’ – is not tested with my version of WP (4.3.1) and deactivating this plugin solved the problem. Removed Scheduled Posts Calendar and now use ‘WordPress Editorial Calendar’ instead.

To be fair, the reviews of Scheduled Posts Calendar did say that later versions of WP have this problem.

I recommend the standard troubleshooting procedure of shutting down plugins and restarting them one by one, it worked for me.