How to update WooCommerce

Keeping WooCommerce, WordPress, extensions, themes, and payment gateways up to date helps your store stay secure, compatible, and functional. This guide walks you through preparing for updates, updating WooCommerce, running required database updates, and checking your store afterward.

Before you update

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Before you update WooCommerce, make a current backup and test the update on a staging site whenever possible. A WordPress and WooCommerce store keeps data in two places: the wp-content folder, which contains themes, extensions, and uploads, and the database, which stores products, orders, posts, pages, and settings.

Back up your store

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An automated backup service is the most efficient and reliable approach. Jetpack VaultPress Backup is one option that integrates with WooCommerce.

If you back up your store manually, complete both steps:

Back up your database. The WordPress Developer Resources describe several methods, including manual and plugin-based options.
Using Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), connect to your server and download the wp-content folder to back up your theme, plugin, and upload files.

Test on a staging site

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A staging site is a copy of your live site where you can test updates before customers are affected. Create a staging site through your hosting provider or restore a backup to a separate WordPress installation. If you prefer not to handle this yourself, consider working with a WooCommerce Agency Partner.

On staging, update WooCommerce, extensions, payment gateways, and your theme together. Then test the store workflows that matter most, such as product pages, cart, checkout, payments, shipping, taxes, order emails, and any extension-specific features your store relies on.

Note: Do not test updates directly on your production site. Test on staging first, then apply the same update set to production after staging checks pass.

Update WooCommerce

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After you have a current backup and have tested the update on staging, update WooCommerce from your WordPress admin.

Set your live site to Coming soon mode during the update window so customers do not check out while files and database changes are running.
Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins.
Find WooCommerce. If an update is available, click Update now.
Wait for WordPress to finish the plugin update before refreshing, navigating away, or starting another update.
If WooCommerce shows a database update notice after the plugin update finishes, complete the database update before you continue testing the store.

You can also update WooCommerce from Dashboard > Updates. Use the path that best fits your maintenance workflow, but avoid running multiple major store updates at the same time unless you already tested that exact update set on staging.

Update the WooCommerce database

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Some WooCommerce updates require a database update after the plugin files update. When this is required, a database update notice appears in your WordPress admin dashboard.

Update WooCommerce Database updates your database to match the new WooCommerce version.
Learn more about updates opens guidance for updating WooCommerce, extensions, and payment gateways.

Note: Ensure you have a backup in place before clicking Update WooCommerce Database.

After you click Update WooCommerce Database, a WooCommerce database update notice appears. Click View progress to open Scheduled Actions and monitor the pending database update actions.

When the update finishes, a dismissible WooCommerce database update complete message confirms the process is done.

Update extensions, themes, and payment gateways

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After WooCommerce itself is updated, update your extensions, themes, and payment gateways. These updates are part of the same maintenance window because compatibility often depends on the full set of active store software.

From the WooCommerce.com Marketplace

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To receive updates for extensions purchased from the WooCommerce.com Marketplace, go to WooCommerce > Extensions > My subscriptions in your WordPress admin dashboard and verify that your store is connected to your WooCommerce.com account. For details, see Managing WooCommerce.com subscriptions.

Use this screen to view installed extensions, themes, and payment gateways, check for available updates, and review compatibility with your WooCommerce version.

Use the Tested up to WooCommerce version value as a compatibility signal for each extension, theme, or payment gateway. If that value is older than the WooCommerce version you plan to run, check for an item update and review its release notes or contact its developer before proceeding.

From third-party developers

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Extensions, payment gateways, and themes not developed by the WooCommerce team come from third-party developers. Contact the third-party developer directly for update instructions, release notes, and compatibility support.

Third-party developers can refer to the version-check support guide for instructions on adding compatibility checks to their extensions.

Check your store after updating

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After updates finish, test the live store before turning off Coming soon mode or considering the update complete.

Open the storefront and several product pages.
Add a product to the cart and confirm the cart page works.
Place a test order using an appropriate test payment method or low-risk workflow for your store.
Check shipping, tax, payment, and email behavior that your store depends on.
Review your WordPress admin for update notices, failed scheduled actions, or extension-specific alerts.

If something does not work as expected, keep the site out of checkout, restore from your backup if needed, and troubleshoot the issue on staging before trying again on production.

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The following resources provide additional information on backups, security, and managing WordPress extensions:

WordPress backups (WordPress Developer Resources)
Jetpack VaultPress Backup and Jetpack Security
Managing plugins (WordPress documentation)

Questions and support

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Do you still have questions and need assistance?

This documentation is about the free, core WooCommerce plugin, for which support is provided in our community forums on WordPress.org. By searching this forum, you’ll often find that your question has been asked and answered before.

If you haven’t created a WordPress.org account to use the forums, here’s how.

If you’re looking to extend the core functionality shown here, we recommend reviewing available extensions in the WooCommerce Marketplace.
Need ongoing advanced support or a customization built for WooCommerce? Hire a Woo Agency Partner.
Are you a developer building your own WooCommerce integration or extension? Check our Developer Resources.

If you weren’t able to find the information you need, please use the feedback thumbs below to let us know.