How to remove Users from WordPress Sitemap

First check your website for the sitemap output

yourWebsite/wp-sitemap.xml

Now, if the users or author sitemap link shows here, simply follow these steps to remove it.

1. Login to cpanel
2. Open File Manager
3. Select your website folder
4. Open wp-includes folder
5. Open sitemaps folder
6. Open providers folder
7. Open the file class-sitemaps-users.php on edit mode

Main Solution

8. Find this block of codes

        foreach ( $users as $user ) {
            $sitemap_entry = array(
                'loc' => get_author_posts_url( $user->ID ),
            );

            /**
             * Filters the sitemap entry for an individual user.
             *
             * @since 5.5.0
             *
             * @param array   $sitemap_entry Sitemap entry for the user.
             * @param WP_User $user          User object.
             */
            $sitemap_entry = apply_filters( 'wp_sitemaps_users_entry', $sitemap_entry, $user );
            $url_list[]    = $sitemap_entry;
        }

        return $url_list;
    }

9. Change the value of $url_list[] to zero. Example:

/**
* to change this line 
* $url_list[] = $sitemap_entry; 
* and this will be as shown below
*/

$url_list[] = 0;

This will generate sitemaps for users but no users will be in the list as the value set to zero.

10. Now if you also want to prevent the users or author sitemap in the first list, find this block of code

    public function get_max_num_pages( $object_subtype = '' ) {
        /**
         * Filters the max number of pages before it is generated.
         *
         * Passing a non-null value will effectively short-circuit the generation,
         * returning that value instead.
         *
         * @since 5.5.0
         *
         * @param int $max_num_pages The maximum number of pages. Default null.
         */
        $max_num_pages = apply_filters( 'wp_sitemaps_users_pre_max_num_pages', null );

        if ( null !== $max_num_pages ) {
            return $max_num_pages;
        }

        $args  = $this->get_users_query_args();
        $query = new WP_User_Query( $args );

        $total_users = $query->get_total();

        return (int) ceil( $total_users / wp_sitemaps_get_max_urls( $this->object_type ) );
    }

11. Change the value of $total_users to zero. Example :

/**
* to change this line 
* $total_users = $query->get_total(); 
* and this will be as shown below
*/
$total_users = 0;

That’s all. Now wp-sitemap will not generate any users or author sitemap

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