Delivering latest feeds is very important so that your subscribers can stay updated with the latest content on your WordPress site. But if your RSS feed is not updated, then it can create big problems, because one; your subscribers won’t know about your latest post and two; if you use something like Twitterfeed service to auto-post via your RSS feed to your social accounts, then your Facebook and Twitter followers won’t be able to get the latest content.
That’s why, it’s essential to solve this problem as soon as possible. Let’s take a look at some solutions that can fix RSS feeds not updating problem in WordPress (and don’t worry, this is a common problem faced by many users, so you’re not alone).
First things first. You’ll need to check if the problem lies in your default RSS feeds or at Feedburner’s end. To know where the problem lies, hit the default WordPress RSS feed URL in your browser’s address bar which would be something like: http://www.yourwebsite.com/feed/
Are you able to see latest post at the top of your default WordPress RSS feed? If you are, then that’s great and you can move to the next step. But if your answer is no, then there might be some problem with your WordPress installation, and your problem has nothing to do with Feedburner.
But before proceeding forward, you should ensure that you are not caching feeds. If you have a caching plugin like W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache, then make sure that you have unchecked the option to cache feeds. In the case of W3 Total Cache, go to Performance > Page Cache and remove the checkmark from “Cache feeds: site, categories, tags, comments.”
This will prevent the plugin from caching your feeds, because if the feeds are cached, then the latest content won’t be displayed.
Enable Pingshot
Pingshot informs RSS readers when any change is made to your feeds. This option can be activated by logging-in to your Feedburner account, visiting Publicize > Pingshot and Activate it from there.
Without Pingshot, it can take between 30 minutes and six hours for content to be updated, and that’s why you should definitely activate Pingshot.
Ping Feedburner
Visit the “Troubleshootize” tab and click on the “pinging feedburner” link. Here’s a direct link for your convenience. This will open a page where you can enter your blog’s URL and press the “Ping Feedburner” button to update your feeds immediately, rather than waiting on Feedburner which will update it at every 30 minute interval time.
Sometimes pinging returns a strange error “We were unable to process your ping.” In such a case, try to ping with your Feedburner URL (which would be something like (http://feeds.feedburner.com/BeginWP).
Resync your Feed
Feedburner calls this as a “Nuclear option.” Resync clears out the cached version and refreshes its content from your original feed. To resync your feed, go to the “Troubleshootize” tab, scroll down and click on “Resync Now” button.
In most cases, this option should fix the problem as it completely resyncs your feed.
Show Less Posts in RSS Feeds
It is a less known fact that Feedburner cannot process original feeds over 512kb. That’s why, try to reduce the number of posts displayed in your RSS Feeds.
To do this, go to Settings > Reading and reduce the number of posts in “Syndication feeds show the most recent.” For example; if you are currently displaying 8 posts in RSS Feeds, then change it to 6 or 7.
Conclusion
When I faced the same problem, I had to follow three solutions mentioned above which worked in my case – show less posts, remove/disable feeds from caching and resync!
Since RSS Feeds are very important to deliver latest content to subscribers, you should therefore take this problem very seriously. Even if you’re not facing this problem, then also you should keep a check at your RSS Feeds regularly, so that if any problem arises, you know what to do.
Did these solutions worked for you? Do let me know in the comments.