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Syncing with WordPress
Syncing with WordPress
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Written by Disqus
Updated over 5 years ago

Syncing may be enabled between WordPress and Disqus using the WordPress plugin. This will copy comments posted in Disqus to the WordPress native comment system, so that they appear in both locations. Comments are synced to your WordPress database using a webhook method starting in version 3.0 instead of wp-cron which is both more reliable and secure for your website.
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 As Disqus replaces the native WP comments system, this will not change what appears on your page when Disqus loads. However, the comments synced from Disqus back to the native WP comment system will appear if Disqus is no longer installed, and will be included in the source code of the page they were posted to.

Setting up Comment Syncing in the WordPress plugin

Syncing is not enabled by default in the WordPress plugin. To enable syncing, you will need to set it up either via Automatic Installation in the plugin or manually by setting up an API application and entering the credentials in your Site Configuration (see instructions below). Once you've entered your API credentials, enable Comment Syncing in the Syncing tab of the plugin.
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How to manually set up Comment Syncing

When creating an API application to sync comments, make sure your API credentials are entered in the Site Configuration tab. Go to the Syncing tab to enable comment syncing.

  1. Create an application (or use an existing application you own) and make note of the following which you will need to copy and paste: public key, secret key, & access token

  2. Change your application "Default Access:" drop-down setting to "Read, write, and manage forums" so that your application can create syncing webhooks for your forum

  3. Paste the keys and token from the step above into the correct fields in Site Configuration tab the your WordPress plugin settings.

  4. Click on the Syncing tab, and select "Manually Sync Comments". 

  5. Select a date range and click "Run Manual Sync"

How to pause Comment Syncing

To pause Comment Syncing, simply click Pause Auto Syncing in the Syncing tab of the WordPress plugin.

Which comments will be synced?

When a comment is posted or edited, this triggers the comment to be synced with WordPress. It supports all comment states including approved, pending, spam, and deleted comments.
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Troubleshooting

1. Check the webhook link here: https://YOURSITE.com/wp-json/disqus/v1/sync/webhook

If that link is not returning anything or not loading, something is blocking outside sources like Disqus from making requests to your site. 

If the REST API is blocked for Disqus or your entire site, you’ll want to ensure that it is enabled. You can follow instructions here to enable REST API and troubleshoot why it may not be enabled:
​https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/248879/is-the-wordpress-rest-api-installed-and-enabled-in-a-vanilla-wordpress-4-7-insta

More general information on the REST API may be found here: https://v2.wp-api.org/

2. This may also be caused by a conflict with ones of your current plugins (often a security plugin). You can test this by temporarily disabling all plugins except Disqus. (These are not permanent recommendations; they are simply to help isolate the issue.) Once all themes (or the suspected themes) have been disabled, try to click the Syncing option within the Disqus plugin to sync your comments.

Specific conflicting themes that we've identified so far: 

3. Additionally, you may want to ensure that there isn't a firewall on your site that could be blocking auto syncing. 

4. If auto syncing is still not working, we recommend manually syncing comments in the Disqus plugin. 

5. If Manual syncing is not working for you, be sure that you have your trusted domain set in the settings of your API application. 

Exporting Issues

Alternatively, if you're having issues with copying comments from WordPress to Disqus, see Exporting comments from WordPress to Disqus.

Other Issues

Comments synced to WordPress have the wrong status

To make sure that comments have the most-up-to-date status, we'd recommend using the manual sync option within the settings of the Disqus WP plugin. You'll want to overwrite the previously synced comments in order to make sure the correct comments are synced.

To prevent comments from being synced automatically in the future, you can disable this feature within the Syncing settings of the WordPress plugin.

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