Duplicate an activity into a one-time draft

When to duplicate an activity

Duplication is a Drecha Events & Bookings Pro shortcut for creating a related activity without rebuilding its content and settings. It is useful for a workshop that returns on an irregular date, a special edition of a class, or a recurring series that needs one standalone event.

Duplication always creates a separate Draft and leaves the source activity unchanged.

Create the copy

1. Open Events & Bookings > Events & Calendar > All Events.
2. Select a saved activity. Save a new activity first if it is still an automatic draft.
3. Find the Duplicate activity action on the edit screen.
4. Open the duplication dialog.
5. Enter the New start date and time.
6. Choose a Duration from the site's shared duration choices.
7. When a preset duration is unsuitable, enable Set a specific end date and time and enter New end.
8. Select Create copy.

The start must be in the future. An explicit end must be later than the new start.

Understand what is copied

The draft receives the source title with “(copy)” appended, content, excerpt, activity type, categories, featured image, teachers, location, custom-field values, and stored event settings. The copy also receives the new timing selected in the dialog.

The following WordPress editing metadata is not copied: the edit lock, last editor marker, old slug, and import key. The source record is not modified.

The new activity is deliberately reset to a One-time schedule. Its recurrence type becomes none, and skipped-date and moved-date exceptions start empty. This is true even when the source was recurring.

Review the draft before publishing

1. Open the new draft after creation.
2. Replace “(copy)” with the final public title.
3. Review its start, duration, explicit end, activity type, description, category, location, teachers, featured image, and custom fields.
4. Review booking configuration and any other copied settings. Capacity or notification settings that were correct for the source may be wrong for the new date.
5. Keep Schedule type as One-time for a standalone copy, or deliberately change it to Recurring and configure a new recurrence rule.
6. Preview the activity.
7. Select Publish only after every inherited value is appropriate.

Practical example

Suppose Weekly Yoga is a recurring activity, but the studio is running a separate New Year session at a different time. Duplicate Weekly Yoga, enter the New Year start and duration, then review capacity, description, and booking settings. The new record begins as a one-time draft, so publishing it does not alter the original weekly series.

Free and Pro differences

Free can create a new one-time activity manually and can edit ordinary one-time records. The duplication dialog and its copied draft workflow require active Pro access. Both editions store the resulting activity in the shared activity post type, so the published one-time copy remains a normal Free activity if Pro later becomes inactive.

Troubleshoot duplication

Duplicate activity is missing

Confirm that Pro access is active, that the activity has been saved, and that your WordPress account can edit that activity.

The new start is rejected

Choose a future date and enter the time in 24-hour HH:MM format. When using a specific end, enter both its date and time and make sure it falls after the new start.

The copy is not in the public calendar

The copy starts as Draft. Open it, review the inherited settings, and select Publish. Then check that its new date falls inside the current calendar view.

The copied activity no longer repeats

This is expected. Every copy starts as One-time and carries no recurrence exceptions. Change Schedule type to Recurring and create a new rule only when the copy itself should become a series.