Intentionally exceed max_num_pages on main query without getting 404?

On every page load, WordPress executes these functions in their respective order:

init();
parse_request($query_args);
send_headers();
query_posts();
handle_404();
register_globals();

where the main query is finished after query_posts(). Note that in this point in time, WordPress knows the template AND all the query variables like max_num_pages.

In handle_404(), if the main query has any posts, the function returns and WordPress continues to load the template. Else it sends a 404 HTTP status and loads the 404 template instead.

Since WordPress 4.5, there is a filter hook called pre_handle_404. If it’s set to true, handle_404() returns (whether or not the main query has any posts!) and the template continues to load.

So after a lot of fiddling around, this finally works. Add this to your functions.php:

function ignore_404_past_max_page($bool = false, $query) {
  $paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? intval(get_query_var('paged')) : 1;
  if (is_author() && ($paged > $query->max_num_pages))
    $bool = true;
  return $bool;
}
add_filter( 'pre_handle_404', 'ignore_404_past_max_page', 10, 2);

That’s it! No editing of existing functions, clean and does exactly what you’d want it to do: prevent WP from 404ing. Just make sure to update WordPress to version 4.5 (and above)!

An unwanted side effect may be that now you can paginate untill PHP_INT_MAX and get empty pages (unless you add some get_the_author_meta() and get_wp_user_avatar() for example). You could probably memorize the maximum page number for each author in the database, then query it and compare it to $paged to set $bool to false in the function above. But I’m really happy with how it works now.

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