Autosave Interval controls how often WordPress automatically saves your work while you are editing posts and pages. Change this to save more or less frequently, depending on how much data loss you can tolerate.
What this feature does
WordPress automatically saves your post or page content as you edit it, without you pressing a save button. This happens in the background and creates temporary drafts so you don't lose your work if your browser crashes, the connection drops, or you accidentally close the tab. By default, WordPress saves every 60 seconds.
If you are editing slowly and carefully and don't want autosaves cluttering your revision history, you can increase the interval to 120 seconds or 300 seconds. If you are doing rapid edits and want safety every 30 seconds, you can lower it. Shorter intervals use slightly more database write resources, but protect against more data loss.
Autosaves are temporary drafts that disappear once you explicitly save the post. Revisions are permanent versions stored in your database. Changing the autosave interval doesn't affect how many revisions are kept; use the Number of Posts Revisions setting to control that.
How to enable it
- Open AdminEase and navigate to Performance. Click AdminEase in the WordPress admin menu, then switch to the Performance tab.
- Enter your autosave interval in seconds. In the Autosave Interval field, enter a number between 5 and 3600 seconds. Common values are 60 (1 minute, default), 120 (2 minutes), or 300 (5 minutes).
-
Save settings.
AdminEase writes the constant to
wp-config.php. Changes take effect on the next page load. - Verify in the editor. Open a post for editing and watch the autosave indicator. It should save at your configured interval.
Settings reference
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Autosave Interval | The number of seconds between automatic saves while editing a post. Accepts values from 5 to 3600 seconds. Lower values save more frequently (safer, more database writes). Higher values save less often (fewer writes, more risk of data loss). Set in increments of 5 seconds. | 60 seconds (1 minute) |
What gets written to wp-config.php
AdminEase writes the AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL constant to wp-config.php:
define( 'AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL', 120 );WordPress reads this at startup and uses it to set the autosave frequency. The value is in seconds. AdminEase preserves any other content in wp-config.php, so this change is safe alongside other configuration.
Troubleshooting
The autosave interval doesn't seem to be working
Confirm the setting was saved correctly by checking AdminEase > Performance and verifying your value is still there. Then clear your browser cache and reload the post editor, as JavaScript may be cached from an older session. If you're using a browser extension or caching plugin that blocks autosave requests, those will prevent saving regardless of the interval setting.
How do I recover a lost autosave?
If your browser crashes mid-edit, WordPress should show a recovery message when you next open the post editor, offering to restore the autosave. Click "Restore" to recover your unsaved work. If you don't see this message, the autosave may not have fired yet or may have been cleared. Always explicitly save before closing the editor if you're worried about data loss.
I set a very short interval (e.g., 5 seconds), will it hurt performance?
Autosaving every 5 seconds means writing to the database constantly while editing, which uses a small amount of extra CPU and I/O. For most sites this is not noticeable. However, on very busy sites or sites with slow database connections, frequent autosaves can add up. If you're running into performance issues, try increasing the interval to 120 or 300 seconds to reduce write frequency.
Can I disable autosave entirely?
This setting requires a value between 5 and 3600 seconds, so autosave cannot be completely disabled through AdminEase. If you really need to disable autosave, you would need to add custom code to your site. In most cases, leaving autosave on with a reasonable interval (60-300 seconds) is a good safety net, so disabling it is not recommended.