Add guidance when the Posts page template doesn't display posts

[robertbpugh]

Description

When a user sets a static "Posts page" in Settings > Reading, WordPress uses the Blog Home (home.html) template to render it. If that template doesn't display posts, the page renders blank or with unrelated content and there's no indication of what's wrong.

This leaves users stuck. They've configured Reading Settings correctly, but their Posts page shows no posts. There's no error, no warning, and no breadcrumb pointing them toward the template as the cause. They can't tell if it's a theme issue, a page settings issue, or a template issue.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install a block theme whose home.html template does not display posts
2. Go to Settings > Reading
3. Set "Your homepage displays" to "A static page"
4. Set a Posts page
5. Visit the Posts page on the front end

Expected: Posts are displayed, or the user gets some indication that the template may need editing
Actual: The page renders the template content (or blank), with no posts and no guidance

Proposal

The core problem is discoverability. A user has no way to connect "my Posts page is blank" to "the Blog Home template doesn't show posts." A few possible approaches:

1. Notice in Reading Settings: When a user assigns a Posts page, surface a link to the Blog Home template in the Site Editor so they know where to look if posts aren't showing.
2. Notice in the Site Editor: When editing the Blog Home template, indicate that this template is used to render the designated Posts page.
3. "Edit page" should open the template: When a user clicks "Edit page" from the admin bar on the Posts page, it currently opens a blank page editor with a notice that page content won't display. It would be more helpful to open the Site Editor with the Blog Home template instead (see When viewing the posts page, “Edit page” control should open the template #63787).

Context

This came up with a real user migrating from Substack. They imported content, set up their Posts page correctly, and spent 20+ minutes trying to figure out why no posts appeared. They eventually gave up. The actual cause was a theme shipping a Blog Home template that didn't include a post loop.

This is a platform-level UX gap, not a theme-specific bug. Any theme can ship a Blog Home template that doesn't show posts, and WordPress provides no guidance when this happens.

Related

• Improve the edit experience for the page that displays latest posts according to reading settings #63748 - Improve the edit experience for the page that displays latest posts
• When viewing the posts page, “Edit page” control should open the template #63787 - "Edit page" control on posts page should open the template

[robertbpugh]

Closing this in favor of #63787 and #63748, which address the core discoverability problem more directly. The real issue is that users have no clear path from "my Posts page is blank" to "I need to edit the Blog Home template." Adding a comment on #63787 with the user story that prompted this.