AutoClose provides several layered mechanisms to keep specific content open: keep-open post IDs, taxonomy term exclusions, per-post-type age overrides, the per-post close-date metabox, and the per-post override. This article covers the bulk-exclusion and per-post-type mechanisms; the metabox is covered in AutoClose Metabox and Close Dates.
Keep comments open on these posts/pages
The Comments → Keep comments on these posts/pages open field is a comma-separated list of post IDs whose comment_status is forced to open on every cron run. For example:
When the cron fires, the plugin first closes comments on every post older than the configured age in the selected post types, then walks this list and re-opens the listed posts. The keep-open list wins over the age-based close.
Keep pingbacks/trackbacks open on these posts/pages
The Pingbacks/Trackbacks → Keep pingbacks/trackbacks on these posts/pages open field works the same way for ping_status. Enter post IDs as a comma-separated list.
Exclude posts in these categories/tags
The Comments → Exclude posts in these categories/tags and Pingbacks/Trackbacks → Exclude posts in these categories/tags fields exclude posts that are assigned to any of the chosen terms. The field has Tom-Select autocomplete — start typing a category, tag, or any other public taxonomy term name, and select from the list.
Posts that match any excluded term are skipped entirely; their comment and ping status is not touched. Term exclusions are checked first, before the age-based close, so a post can be old enough to qualify for closing but still be skipped if it is in an excluded term.
The plugin saves the term IDs to a separate *_term_ids option when you save the settings, and uses that ID list when the cron runs. If you import settings from another site or migrate, you may need to re-select the terms in the autocomplete so the IDs match the new site’s term IDs.
Age per post type
The Comments → Age per post type and Pingbacks/Trackbacks → Age per post type settings override the global age cutoff for individual post types, rather than excluding them entirely:
-2— use the global age above (default).-1— never close this post type.0or higher — an explicit age in days for this post type, independent of the global setting.
Setting a post type to -1 is effectively a blanket exclusion for that post type, without needing a term or ID list. A post type left at -2 still respects the term exclusions and keep-open ID list described above; those checks run before the age (global or per-type) is applied.
Per-post override via the metabox
The AutoClose Settings metabox on the post edit screen exposes Close comments on and Close pingbacks/trackbacks on date fields. See AutoClose Metabox and Close Dates for details. The cron also respects the comment and ping status set on the post itself, so any post whose comment_status or ping_status is open is left alone.
Excluding a post from the Tools page actions
The one-click Tools → AutoClose Tools buttons are global. There is no per-post exclusion for them — clicking Close comments on all post types will close comments on every post in the configured post types, including ones in your keep-open list of post IDs only when the keep-open list also runs as part of Run all scheduled actions now. The other buttons do not honor the keep-open list. Use them carefully.
Scheduling the AutoClose Cron