I’m implementing a custom author archive in WordPress where the author page lists posts based on custom meta fields (ACF user fields), not post_author.

What works

• /author/author-slug/ loads correctly

• Page 1 shows the correct posts

• Pagination links are generated correctly

What doesn’t work

• /author/author-slug/page/2/ returns 404 / Forbidden

• WordPress code and rewrites seem correct

• Pagination never reaches WordPress on page 2 in staging

Setup details

• WordPress (Genesis-based theme, but not doing anything custom with Genesis loops)

• Custom post type: document

• Author page shows documents where:

  • _dg_document_writer_id = author_id OR

  • _dg_document_reviewer_id = author_id

• Pagination size: 9

Code

Author template (author.php)

$paged = max( 1, get_query_var( 'paged' ) );

$q = new WP_Query([
  'post_type'      => 'document',
  'post_status'    => 'publish',
  'posts_per_page' => 9,
  'paged'          => $paged,
  'meta_query'     => [
    'relation' => 'OR',
    [
      'key'     => '_dg_document_writer_id',
      'value'   => $author_id,
      'compare' => 'LIKE',
    ],
    [
      'key'     => '_dg_document_reviewer_id',
      'value'   => $author_id,
      'compare' => 'LIKE',
    ],
  ],
]);

Pagination:

echo paginate_links([
  'total'   => max( 1, $q->max_num_pages ),
  'current' => $paged,
  'type'    => 'list',
]);

Rewrite rule

add_action( 'init', function () {
  add_rewrite_rule(
    '^author/([^/]+)/page/([0-9]+)/?$',
    'index.php?author_name=$matches[1]&paged=$matches[2]',
    'top'
  );
});

Permalinks flushed.

Debugging observations

• Page 1 works

• Page 2 never reaches WordPress

• curl -I /author/slug/page/2/ returns 403 Forbidden

• Response headers indicate the request is blocked before WordPress runs

Can someone help to fix?