{"id":2779,"date":"2026-10-08T21:02:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T19:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/?p=2779"},"modified":"2026-10-09T10:42:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T08:42:36","slug":"fix-select-valid-main-author-error","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/fix-select-valid-main-author-error\/","title":{"rendered":"Fix the \u201cSelect a Valid Main Author\u201d Error When Publishing a Post"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If WordPress won&#8217;t publish or update your post and Molongui Authorship displays an error about the Main Author, the post may not have a valid primary author assigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This article explains how to identify and fix the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Error Message<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You may see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cSelect a valid main author before publishing or updating a published post.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Block Editor, WordPress may display it with one of these prefixes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Publishing failed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Updating failed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This happens when Molongui cannot validate the Main Author required for the requested publication or update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quick Fix<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"1\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Open the affected post in WordPress.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Locate the <strong>Authors<\/strong> panel.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Look for the <strong>MAIN<\/strong> label next to the assigned authors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If no author is marked Main, find the author who should receive primary credit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Click the empty star icon next to that author.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Confirm that the MAIN label appears.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Save, update, or publish the post.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>With Molongui Authorship 5.3.1 or later, you can save the new Main Author and publish directly from the editor without having to perform two separate saves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Does This Happen?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A post may have one or more authors assigned without having a designated Main Author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A Guest Author was added without selecting Main.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The previous Main Author was removed, leaving multiple co-authors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The post was created or edited before its authorship was fully resolved.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The post contains older or incomplete authorship information.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Having an author listed in the Authors panel does not necessarily mean that the author is designated as Main.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Look for the MAIN label to confirm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Does the Post Stay in Draft?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Molongui allows you to save drafts without a Main Author, but it requires valid primary authorship before publishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you try to publish a Draft without a valid Main Author, the publication is blocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The post remains a Draft until the authorship issue is resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly, if you remove the Main Author from an already published post, the full post editor prevents the invalid update rather than silently reverting the published post to Draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Does WordPress Show \u201cSchedule\u201d Instead of \u201cPublish\u201d?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This is usually related to the post&#8217;s publication date, not its Main Author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a post is set to a future publication date, WordPress offers to schedule it rather than publish it immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to publish the post now:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"1\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Open the post settings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Find the publication date.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Change it to <strong>Immediately<\/strong> or <strong>Now<\/strong>, depending on your WordPress version.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Confirm that the post has a valid Main Author.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Publish the post.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Scheduled posts also require a valid Main Author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to Find Other Affected Posts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Go to <strong>Posts &gt; All Posts<\/strong> and open the <strong>No Main Author<\/strong> view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This helps identify posts explicitly marked as having unresolved Main Author information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Review each affected post and assign the correct Main Author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Still Having Trouble?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Make sure you&#8217;re running the latest version of Molongui Authorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Versions 5.3.1 and 5.3.2 include improvements to publication validation and automatic Main Author assignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the issue persists after selecting a valid Main Author, contact Molongui Support and include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Your Molongui Authorship version.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Your WordPress version.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Whether you&#8217;re using the Block Editor, Classic Editor, Quick Edit, or Bulk Edit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The exact error message.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Whether the affected post is a Draft, Published, or Scheduled.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Whether the author is a WordPress user or Guest Author.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This information will help us investigate the problem more efficiently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If WordPress won&#8217;t publish or update your post and Molongui Authorship displays an error about the Main Author, the post may not have a valid primary author assigned. This article explains how to identify and fix the problem. The Error Message You may see: \u201cSelect a valid main author before publishing or updating a published [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1,46],"tags":[31,63,13],"class_list":["post-2779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authorship","category-doc","category-troubleshooting","tag-co-authors","tag-main-author","tag-troubleshooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2780,"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2779\/revisions\/2780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}