PostRSS Catch-Up: Post Older Feed Items From a Start Date

Short answer: In PostRSS you choose a date to start posting from, and if you also turn on the catch-up option the service publishes older feed items that were never posted, going back to that date, instead of only the items that appear after the source is added. Catch-up works only with items that are still inside the feed, so it is a tool for a new source or a gap in posting, not a way to recover articles that the feed no longer lists. Combine it with the publishing order and the maximum number of posts per update to release older items gradually.

Adding a feed to an auto-poster for the first time raises an awkward question. The site already has dozens of articles. Should the first run post nothing and wait for the next new article, or should it publish the recent backlog so that new social pages do not look empty? Both answers are valid, and PostRSS lets you decide with two settings: the date to post from and the catch-up option. This guide explains what each setting does, how they interact with the publishing order and the update limit, when catch-up is a good idea, when it is not and how to check the result in the reports. The facts come from the live features page, the plan list and the API documentation.

What the start date does

Every source in PostRSS has a date to post from. It tells the service which feed items are eligible. Items published after that date can be posted; items older than the date are ignored. By default a new source starts from the moment you add it, so the first check does not flood your audience with the past. If you move the date earlier, more of the existing feed becomes eligible.

Think of the date as a line on a calendar. Everything after the line is fair game. Everything before the line stays untouched. The line is yours to move, and you can set the hour and minute as well as the day, which is useful when you want to start posting at a precise moment, for example after a product launch.

What the catch-up option adds

The features page describes the idea in one sentence: pick the date to start from, and PostRSS also posts older feed items that were never published. The API documentation words it a little more exactly. With catch-up on, the service posts older, never-posted items back to the start date. Without it, the start date only marks where new posting begins, and older items that appear in the feed are not posted retroactively.

So the two settings together answer the question from the introduction. A start date alone means: begin from here, going forward. A start date with catch-up means: begin from here, and also fill in what was missed since then. The word missed matters, because the service only posts items that have not been posted before. Nothing is published twice.

Why catch-up only reaches what the feed contains

This is the most common misunderstanding, so it deserves its own section. An RSS or Atom feed is a window, not an archive. Most content systems list the newest ten, twenty or fifty items and drop the rest. PostRSS reads the feed address you give it, and it can only see what that address returns. If your feed lists the last twenty articles, catch-up can publish at most those twenty, no matter how early you set the date.

If you need to publish a longer history, you have two options. You can increase the number of items the feed exposes, which most platforms allow in their settings, and then run catch-up once. Or you can upload a CSV file as a source on a plan that includes CSV upload, which suits a one-time import of a known list of links. The features page explains that one CSV row becomes one post and that this source type is available from the Professional plan upward.

When catch-up is a good idea

Catch-up is useful in a few clear situations. The first is a new social page. A page with no posts looks abandoned, and a visitor who lands on it from a search result has no reason to follow it. Releasing the ten most recent articles over a few days gives the page some substance.

The second is a gap. Suppose a feed was broken for a week because of a plugin update, or the social account was disconnected and reconnected. Catch-up with a start date at the beginning of the gap publishes what was missed. The third is a new network added to an existing setup. You may already post to one network, and you add a second target with the same feed. Setting the start date to a few weeks ago and enabling catch-up fills the new account with recent content.

When catch-up is a bad idea

Do not use catch-up blindly. News items, event announcements and offers with an end date go stale. A post that says registration closes on Friday is harmful when it appears three weeks after Friday. Time-sensitive articles are better left out. Seasonal articles are another example: a Christmas gift guide in March is noise.

Also think about your audience. If a social page already has followers who saw most of your articles when they were first published, a burst of old posts feels like spam. Catch-up is at its best on pages that are new to the content, not on pages that have seen it all before.

Control the flow with the publishing order

The publishing order decides which eligible item goes first. PostRSS offers newer items first, older items first or a random order. For a catch-up run, the choice changes the experience of your followers. Newer first means that the most relevant articles appear on the page right away and the older ones trail behind. Older first rebuilds the page chronologically, so the timeline reads like a story from the oldest to the newest, which can suit a series or a tutorial course. Random avoids a rigid sequence and is a reasonable option for evergreen content.

For most business pages, newer first is the safest. The first posts followers see are the freshest, and if you decide to stop the catch-up early, you have already published the articles that matter most.

Control the volume with the posts-per-update limit

Each time the service checks the source, it can publish several items. The maximum number of posts per update limits how many. This setting is what turns a catch-up from a flood into a trickle. If forty items are eligible and the limit is two, each check publishes two, and the backlog drains over many checks. Items beyond the limit are not lost; they wait for the next update and appear in the report with a status that says the limit was reached.

A low limit has another benefit: it protects your plan allowance. Paid plans include a monthly number of posts and a number per target, and a large catch-up can use a lot of them quickly. Read the numbers on the pricing page before you release a big backlog, and choose a limit that fits.

Combine catch-up with a posting window

Backlog posts need not appear at three in the morning. Paid plans let you post only between chosen hours, or at exact times on chosen days in your time zone. With a window of, say, business hours, the catch-up releases a couple of posts at each check during the day and rests at night. The result looks like a person who is slowly sharing older articles, which is exactly the impression you want. The guide on the features page lists these scheduling options together.

A step-by-step example

Imagine a small consultancy with a blog feed that lists the last twenty articles. They open a new Facebook Page and a Bluesky account and want both to have content from the first day.

1. They add the blog feed as a source and connect the Page and the account as targets.
2. They set the start date to the day of the oldest article they still consider useful, which is about two months back.
3. They turn on catch-up so that the earlier articles are eligible.
4. They choose newer items first, so the page begins with the most relevant articles.
5. They set the maximum posts per update to one and, on a paid plan, limit posting to working hours.
6. They check the report after the first day to confirm that one article went out at each check and the rest are waiting.

Within a few days both pages carry a dozen articles, and from then on every new article is posted normally.

Read the report to confirm what happened

The reports show each item that the service saw in a check and its status. For a catch-up run you will see items processed, items skipped, items already posted and items that waited because the posts-per-update limit was reached. If an item you expected is missing, the report usually explains why: it may be older than the start date, it may have been excluded by a keyword filter or it may not be inside the feed at all. Reading the report once after the first check saves a lot of guessing.

Keyword filters and catch-up

Keyword filters apply to older items just as they do to new ones. If you include only items that mention certain words, or exclude items that mention others, catch-up respects that rule, and filtered items are not posted and do not count against your post allowance. This is a handy way to release only the evergreen part of a backlog. For example, a shop can exclude the word sale, so that old promotion articles never reappear.

Plan a clean cut-over

A final tip concerns changes to an existing source. If you change the start date later, you change which items are eligible. Moving the date earlier with catch-up on can release items that you deliberately skipped before. Moving it later narrows the set. Before you change the date on a busy source, think about what the feed currently contains and what the target has already received, and set the posts-per-update limit low for the first check after the change.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Expecting catch-up to publish articles that are no longer listed in the feed.
• Releasing time-sensitive items such as expired offers or past event announcements.
• Leaving the posts-per-update limit at its maximum and publishing a large backlog in a single burst.
• Forgetting that the monthly allowance of your plan counts the backlog posts too.
• Turning on catch-up for a page whose followers have already seen the same articles.
• Changing the start date on a live source without checking the report afterwards.

Seotud lugemine

• How to test your RSS auto-posting setup
• Common RSS auto-post mistakes that break your automation
• What happens if your auto-posting tool goes down

The bottom line

The start date and the catch-up option let you decide how a new source begins. Without catch-up, posting starts from now. With catch-up, PostRSS also publishes older, never-posted items back to the date you choose, as long as they are still listed in the feed. Use newer-first order and a low posts-per-update limit to release the backlog gradually, add a posting window on a paid plan, leave out time-sensitive items with keyword filters and read the report after the first check. Done this way, a new social page gets a healthy history without annoying anyone.

FAQ

Does PostRSS post my old articles automatically?

Not by default. A new source begins from the moment it is added. To include older items, set the date to post from and turn on the catch-up option.

Can catch-up publish articles that are not in my feed?

No. PostRSS reads only what the feed address returns. If the feed lists the last twenty articles, only those can be published. A CSV source can be used for a longer list on plans that include it.

Will catch-up post the same article twice?

No. The option concerns older items that were never published. Items that were already posted are recognized and shown in the report as already posted.

How can I avoid a flood of posts?

Set a low maximum number of posts per update, choose newer items first and, on a paid plan, restrict posting to chosen hours. The rest of the backlog waits for later checks.

Do keyword filters work with catch-up?

Yes. Filters are applied to older items too, and filtered items are not posted and do not count towards your allowance.