WooCommerce Issues And Their Fixes

WooCommerce is certainly the best E-commerce and cart program. It’s simple to install a WooCommerce plugin and create your store. But despite the fact that it’s very simple to get your retail store live, there is a possibility that you could end up with a few errors. We are listing a few of the most frequent errors and their fixes.

Why Is My Store Slow ?

Due to larger database on Ecommerce stores, there is a possibility the you will feel a performance issue. There are several server side cache technologies that can boost your store. We highly recommend using a optimize WooCommerce hosting like Cloudways that has advanced cache technologies like NGINX, Varnish and Memcached.

So, here we go.

Many of the issues related to your WooCommerce store can be solved by just following the three steps below.

1. Update WooCommerce
2. Check your theme compatibility
3. Update all plugins

But, if the problem is same, then here we go.

1. Plugin and Theme Conflict:

After updating the theme and plugins, if you still face any error, there is a possibility one of your Plugins is not compatible with your theme. Try disabling all plugins and re-enable one by one to check which plugin is conflicting.

2. session_start Warning:

If you see an error message like below,

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: open(xxx) failed: 
Permission denied (13) in xxx/wp-content/plugins/woocommerce/woocommerce.php 
on line 80

This problem is from your hosting provider’s end, you should contact their support.

Basically, it is caused when sessions in PHP did not setup correctly, or the sessions directory is not writable.

3. Session Conflicting on Multiple Sites on One Domain:

When we host multiple WordPress sites on a single domain, there is a possibility of conflicting session. This should not happen.

To solve this, open your “wp-config.php” file and add the following code:

if ( ! session_id() ) {
            session_name( 'PHPSESSID_1' );
}

4. Call to Undefined Function: is_woocommerce_active():

This kind of error isn’t related to your WooCommerce settings, it’s a compatibility issue. There are possibly two basic reasons why this error occurred:

• Plugin out of date:
  As we’ve already discussed, updating all plugins will solve lots of errors in your WooCommerce store. But if the error is still there, you should disable all your plugins and test your store. It should start working ! If Yes, then there is a plugin that is conflicting with your store. Try enabling plugins one by one and test your store.
• Third party themes:
  We usually use themes that are built by third parties. We should check whether they are compatible with our store or not. To check the compatibility, change your theme to the default theme of WordPress and see if the problem still exists. If not, that means your theme is somehow not compatible with your WooCommerce store. Try choosing WooCommerce compatible theme.

5. Completed Order Email Doesn’t Contain Download Links:

Sometimes, Downloadable items don’t show downloading link in Email like the image below.

Causes:

This usually happens when you have an excessively long table prefix (greater than 64 characters). A SQL table named as “wp_woocommerce_downloadable_product_permissions” is not created automatically due to the exceeded limit of table name in your Database.

To Fix:

There is only one way to handle this, you’ve  got to shorten your table prefix. You can do it manually by following these steps, you’ve got to change all table names one by one. You can use a WordPress plugin “DB Prefix Change” to change table prefix.

After changing table prefix, it would be look like this:

6. Blurry Images:

Causes:

Theme default image size and WooCommerce default image sizes are different.

The most common problem of a WooCommerce store is how your product will be displayed. You can manage your product display in two ways.

1. Theme Default Image Sizes
2. WooCommerce Default Image Sizes

Try to set both of them to be the same size.

To Fix:

There are three types of images in a WooCommerce store.

1. Single Product Image: Largest thumbnail on the product details page.
   To know the default Single Product Image dimension of your theme, navigate to your store, open a Product. You’ll see the largest image. In Chrome, right click on largest image you’ll see dimension. Note it down.

2. Catalog Images: Medium sized thumbnails are used in product loops (e.g., categories, related products, up-sells, cross-sells, etc.).
   To know the default Catalog Image dimension of your theme, navigate to your store. You’ll see Medium Sized images of different products. In Chrome, right click on any medium sized image and you’ll see the dimensions. Note it down.

3. Product Thumbnails: The smallest thumbnail used in product galleries on the single product pages, the cart and widgets.
   To know the default Product Thumbnail dimension of your theme, navigate to your store, open a Product. You’ll see small sized images just below the largest image (depends on your theme). In Chrome, right click on the small sized image and you’ll see the dimensions. Note it down.

Navigate to “WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Display“, you’ll see WooCommerce default image dimensions there. Replace them with your theme default dimensions.

P.S: For products, we would recommend you to always upload an image at a minimum of 800 x 800, and even larger will be more preferable.

This article doesn’t cover every imaginable case. There is a possibility that you might face other errors, feel free to ask about your specific issue by using the comment section below. I would love to help you out 🙂

The WooCommerce system status page provides information on versions, template overrides, and memory. Navigate to “WooCommerce > System Status“ for error reporting.

You are now done with WooCommerce common errors and their fixes. Are you facing any difficulty? Feel free to post any query by using the comments section below. Launch your free trial on the WooCommerce Managed Hosting Platform today to create your online store with just 1-click WooCommerce installation.
Additionally, keep an eye on this blog as I will be adding more resources for WooCommerce in the coming weeks. Likewise, you can start working with your WooCommerce install and let me know what more features you want unlocked in it.

WooThemes maintains a page that lists down common issues with WooCommerce stores and their fixes. You can read it here.
Images taken from WooThemes.

Mustaasam Saleem

Mustaasam is the WordPress Community Manager at Cloudways. Where he actively works and loves sharing his knowledge with the WordPress Community. When he is not working, you can find him playing squash with his friends, or defending in Football, and listening to music.

Get Connected on: Twitter Community Forum