Top three most common issues
Chances are that you are having an issue with your WooCommerce store, if you’ve landed on this page. Our aim is to help you solve it.
According to stats, most issues are caused by:
- Your website software is out of date.
- There is a conflict with your theme.
- There is a conflict with another plugin.
Outdated software
Keeping software up to date better protects your website against hacking, and the latest versions of WordPress, WooCommerce and Woo extensions, as well as your theme and other plugins, often have bug fixes that resolve the current trouble you’re having.
To check if there are updates available for your website, go to WooCommerce > System Status, where important notifications are highlighted in red.
Update instructions
After making a full backup of your website, to ensure that the update process runs as smooth as possible, follow these steps:
- Go to WordPress Dashboard > Plugins, and update any third-party plugin that is out of date. Do not update WooCommerce yet.
- If your website is running WooCommerce 2.0 or earlier, do not update on your live site. This is a significant update over multiple versions and could cause trouble. Only update on a test/staging site to ensure that the process runs smoothly.
- Update any WooCommerce extension you purchased from WooCommerce.com. You can also download your extension(s) from your Woo Account and overwrite the plugin(s) manually by FTP in /wp-content/plugins/
- Go to: WordPress Dashboard > Plugins and upgrade WooCommerce to the latest stable version.
- Update WordPress to the current version. There will be a notification on your WordPress Dashboard if an update is available.
- Update your theme to the current version. You may need to check with your theme author to see if you’re running the latest version. If your site is running a WooTheme, you can update the WooFramework here: WordPress Dashboard > Theme > Update Framework
More information at Managing Plugins at WordPress.org.
Plugin and theme conflicts
Almost half of the tickets we receive are related to issues caused by conflicts with third-party themes and plugins.
Although these themes and plugins provide additional functionality, more code running on your website also increases the chance of incompatibility. We strive to ensure compatibility with our extensions, but we can’t guarantee that third-party products made for WooCommerce will work with our software.
To troubleshoot theme and plugin conflicts:
1/ Switch to a default WordPress theme, such as Twenty Seventeen, to see if the problem still exists. If the problem goes away, contact your theme developer about the issue. There may be an update that solves it.
If the problem persists in a default theme, go to the next step.
2/ Disable all your plugins, except for WooCommerce and the WooCommerce extensions giving trouble. Does that fix it? If yes, then there’s likely a conflict with one of the disabled plugins. To pinpoint which one, reactivate your plugins (1 or 2 at a time) and see if the problem reappears.
If the issue is still there running a default theme and no extra plugins activated, go to the next step.
3/ Contact a Happiness Engineer to investigate further. In the support ticket you create, provide us with as much information as possible. Answering these questions will speed the process:
- When exactly did you first notice the problem?
- Have any updates been applied to your website recently?
- Have you changed themes or made any design changes?
- Have you installed any new plugins?
- Can the issue be replicated on multiple devices?
- Is your problem happening in one browser, or all of them?
- Do you see any specific error messages?
More troubleshooting
Fatal errors
Fatal error messages typically tell you the path, including the name of the plugin or theme causing it. This helps track down where/what to fix.
System status
The WooCommerce System Status page provides info on versions, template overrides, and memory. To access the page, go to WooCommerce > System Status.
Items you need to act on are highlighted red. This may include Updating Memory, creating pages correctly, or updating outdated plugins.
Troubleshooting a slow site
See Troubleshooting a Slow Site Guide for tips and tricks on how to make your site faster.
FAQs
How do I manually upload a plugin?
To update a plugin manually, unzip the download and load the files via FTP and overwrite the existing files. There is no need to deactivate the plugin, and no need to delete any files. You can’t automatically update WooCommerce plugins via your WordPress admin unless you have activated your keys – you must do it via FTP.
Where do I find my downloads and keys?
You can download and access your keys at:
Can you help me with customizations?
Requesting a new feature or help with a specific customization is beyond the scope of our Support Policy.
If you want something custom, or a particular feature not offered in core or our extensions, we recommend contacting:
Post jobs, consult experienced developers who review your requests, and complete work as quick as possible.
Ideas/feature requests for WooCommerce extensions and WooCommerce core can be posted directly on our Ideas Board. Other users can vote on your ideas and gather feedback, and ultimately we will act on the most requested ideas.
Why am I getting the message, “WooCommerce Data Update Required”?
You need to update WooCommerce to the latest version. You’re currently running an older version.
Why are my Data Sets not saving?
If you notice product variations, tax rates and other large data sets not saving, see Problems with large amounts of data not saving (variations, rates etc) for more details on the solution.
I found a bug, what do I do?
If you found a bug in WooCommerce Core (not an extension) that persists after following the above troubleshooting tips, report it directly to GitHub so our developers are made aware.
Documentation
We have extensive Documentation that covers all our plugins, extensions, and themes in detail. We put a lot of effort into improving this resource, making it easier to navigate and find related articles.
Here are some great resources to assist during your Self-Service Troubleshooting:
- WooCommerce Troubleshooting
- How to Work with Variable Products
- Translation/Localization
- Dealing with Fuzzy Thumbnails
- Adding Product Images and Galleries
Still need help?
Please open a new ticket so one of our Happiness Engineers can assist further.
To ensure faster and efficient help:
- Generate a WooCommerce Systems Status report. Go to: WooCommerce > System status and Get System Report.
- Tell us what you found while working through the Self Service Trouble Shooting Guide.
- Provide us with an administrator username and password for your WordPress admin so we can start investigating immediately. Adding this info in your ticket is secure and details are kept private. You can create a temporary user name and password, then delete when we’re finished.