# “New changes in WordPress” keeps coming back

A document keeps showing **New changes in WordPress** in the editor’s **WP** tab, or the **WordPress update** pill in the document list, even straight after you pull. Older versions of these docs called this state “WordPress is newer”. It is not a fault in the status: something on your site keeps updating the post.

**Before you start:** you need wp-admin access to the site’s plugins, and ideally a staging copy of the site to test on.

## Why the status comes back

Workover records the post’s modification time every time you push or pull. When WordPress later reports a modification time newer than that, the post is flagged as changed. If the flag returns right after a pull, the post’s modification time keeps moving.

The editor’s **WP** tab checks the live post. The document list does not: it reads the result of a background check, so its pill can lag. For the full model, see [Sync status and conflicts](/docs/sync-status-and-conflicts/).

## What moves the modification time

WordPress updates a post’s modification time when the post itself is re-saved, not when a plugin only writes post meta. Things that can re-save a post automatically include:

- **SEO plugins** that re-save posts, for example after recalculating something on a schedule.
- **Cache and optimization plugins** that rewrite post content.
- **Image optimizers** that update the posts that reference an image.
- **Related-post and internal-linking plugins** that insert links into content.
- **Scheduled jobs** on `wp_cron` that call `wp_update_post`.
- **Another integration** that updates the same post through the WordPress REST API.

## Find what is re-saving the post

1. Pull the document. The **WP** tab does not re-check WordPress while it stays open, so reload the document from time to time. When the status shows **New changes in WordPress** again, the line under it reads “Edited in WordPress … · you synced …”. Note the edit time and compare it with scheduled tasks on your site.
2. Open the post in wp-admin and compare its content with the document. If nothing differs, only the modification time moved. WordPress saves a revision only when the title, content or excerpt changes, so a re-save that changes nothing may leave no revision to inspect.
3. On a staging copy of the site, deactivate plugins in halves until the status stops coming back. The last half you turned off contains the plugin responsible.

## Fix it

**If the plugin genuinely changes the published content**, treat WordPress as the source for that post: pull before every push, so you push on top of the plugin’s changes rather than over them.

**If only the modification time moves**, you can push over it.

> **Warning:** **Overwrite anyway** replaces whatever is on WordPress with your version. Use it only after you have confirmed in step 2 that the WordPress content matches your document.

When you press **Push**, the **Before you push…** dialog appears; select **Overwrite anyway**.

**If the plugin behavior is optional**, turn it off. A plugin that re-saves every post on a schedule makes the sync status meaningless across the whole site, not just for this document.

## Related

- [Sync status and conflicts](/docs/sync-status-and-conflicts/)
- [How to fix a push to WordPress that failed](/docs/push-failures/)
- [Pulling changes from WordPress](/docs/pulling-from-wordpress/)
- [How WordPress sync works](/docs/how-wordpress-sync-works/)