Disable the Heartbeat API in WordPress

The Heartbeat API, added in WordPress 3.6, is a logged-in browser timer that POSTs to admin-ajax.php while you work. The heartbeat script sends one request with action=heartbeat, waits for the reply, then sends another. On the post editor the tick is 15 seconds; on the dashboard and the front end, where the script loads at all, core already uses 60 seconds. The script never runs faster than every 15 seconds, and it pulls an interval above 120 seconds back down to 120.

• Classic-editor autosave rides on that tick.
• The notice that someone else has the post open uses it, in both editors.
• The wp-admin warning that your login is about to expire uses it.
• Some plugin notices that refresh without a reload use it too.

The block editor also saves through the REST API on AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL, which defaults to 60 seconds. Slowing Heartbeat does not remove that REST autosave.

Open a post while logged in, filter the browser Network panel for admin-ajax.php, and read the action field without typing. A Heartbeat row is a POST whose body contains action=heartbeat. Before any change, the editor adds a row about every 15 seconds.

If the action names a plugin, Heartbeat is not the caller. Cart updates, live search and security scans use the same file, and disabling Heartbeat leaves those rows in place.

Put the snippet in a child theme's functions.php or a small site-specific plugin — never in the parent theme, whose update would erase the edit. Do not edit core files under wp-includes or wp-admin.

add_filter( 'heartbeat_settings', function ( $settings ) {
    $settings['interval'] = 60;
    return $settings;
} );

add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', function () {
    wp_deregister_script( 'heartbeat' );
}, 100 );

The filter moves every screen that still loads Heartbeat to 60 seconds. The action removes the script on the public site after WordPress has registered it, so logged-out pages do not tick.

To stop Heartbeat on the dashboard and leave the editor running, skip post.php and post-new.php. A deregister with no screen check also removes the editor tick, and that is the change which drops classic autosave and the post lock.

add_action( 'admin_enqueue_scripts', function ( $hook ) {
    if ( 'post.php' === $hook || 'post-new.php' === $hook ) {
        return;
    }
    wp_deregister_script( 'heartbeat' );
}, 100 );

If the site shows a white screen, the snippet has a PHP error. Restore the old functions.php in the file manager, or rename that plugin's folder. Email support@webji.services the error line, and do not keep reloading the broken site.