Populate Slider Prior to Live Post

Until recently, the slider options were part of the main Admin Panel under Appearance. When there, I had the ability to enter the post ID while the related post was still scheduled to post. While the slider would then show one less than the total (if the slider was set to 5 it would only show 4), as soon as the post went live, the slider corresponding to that post would then automatically go live also (show 5 again). I noticed that in the last update or two, that option has now been moved to the Customizer and if I enter the ID for a scheduled post and save the settings, the theme changes the scheduled ID to False and the slider does not update when the new post is published. I have to wait for the post to be live before I can populate the Featured Slider panel with the latest post ID. Is this an intended change? If so, is there some way I can set the theme to go back to the old behavior? My posts tend to go line early in the morning and I now have to always go back and enter the Post ID after the fact. I hope this explanation is clear. Let me know if you have any questions. Regards, David