Auto Product Categories Menu

Overview

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Auto Product Categories Menu automatically displays your WooCommerce product categories inside WordPress menus.

The plugin provides two ways to manage your category navigation:

• Dynamic mode – categories update automatically in real time
• One-click Sync – generate a static menu structure for full manual control

Requirements

• WordPress 5.4 or higher
• WooCommerce 7.0 or higher
• PHP 8 or higher
• Administrator access
• Classic WordPress theme

Dynamic Mode

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Best for stores where categories change frequently.

Setup

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1. Go to Appearance → Menus
2. Open the Auto Product Cats metabox
3. Select the item – All Product Categories (dynamic)
4. Click Add to Menu
5. Save the menu
6. Adjust settings in WooCommerce → Auto Product Cats → Dynamic

One-Click Sync

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Use Sync if you want full manual control over the menu structure.

Setup

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• Create or choose a menu in Appearance → Menus
• Go to WooCommerce → Auto Product Cats → Sync to menu
• Select your target menu
• Configure display options
• Click Sync Menu

The generated items behave like standard WordPress menu items and can be edited or reordered manually.

Note: Sync settings do not save, after a sync; display options revert to default

Settings Explained

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Dynamic & Sync

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• Wrap Parent Item – Creates a single parent menu item (for example, Shop) and places all product categories inside it.
  Disable this option to insert categories directly at the top level of the menu.
• Parent Item – Set the label for the parent menu item when Wrap Parent Item is enabled.
• Shop Link (Parent Destination) – Optionally link the parent item to your WooCommerce Shop page instead of using a placeholder link.
• Max Depth – Limit how many levels of category hierarchy are displayed. Set to 0 to show all levels.
• Order By – Choose how categories are sorted (menu order, name, slug, or ID).
• Order Direction – Control the sorting direction:
  (ASC) Ascending – lowest → highest
  (DESC) Descending – highest → lowest
• Hide Empty Categories – Show only categories that contain products.
• Exclude Categories – Remove specific categories from the menu output.

Tools

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The Tools tab provides maintenance and troubleshooting options for advanced control and support.

Delete Generated Items

Removes menu items that were previously created by the Sync feature.

• Only items generated by the plugin are removed
• Your existing manual menu items remain untouched
• Useful if you want to reset a synced menu before running Sync again

Debug Logging

Enable detailed logging to help diagnose issues.
When enabled, the plugin writes diagnostic information to:

WooCommerce → Status → Logs
Log file: auto-product-categories-menu

Use this option when troubleshooting or when requested by support.

Note: It is recommended to disable logging when not needed to avoid unnecessary log entries.

Flush Category Menu Cache

Clears the cached menu output so it can be rebuilt on the next page load.

Cache is automatically cleared when changes are detected but Use this if:

• Categories were recently added, removed, or reorganised
• Menu changes are not appearing immediately
• You suspect cached data is being displayed

Note: This action does not modify your menus, it only refreshes the cached output.

Advanced (WP-CLI)

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WP-CLI allows you to:

• Generate category menus from the command line
• Delete previously generated menu items
• Flush the category menu cache
• Automate menu updates via scripts, cron jobs, or deployment processes

This is useful for:

• Large or multisite environments
• Automated deployments
• Scheduled maintenance tasks
• Developer workflows

To view available commands and options, run:

wp help pmp-awcm

Or view help for a specific command:

wp help pmp-awcm sync

All commands should be executed from your WordPress root directory.

Note: A full list of commands and examples are available in the plugin Advanced tab

Troubleshooting

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Known errors or issues and how to solve them.

Categories not appearing or missing

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• Ensure the menu is saved
• Check the depth setting
• Confirm product categories exist

Auto Product Cats metabox not visible

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• Click Screen Options (top-right of the page)
• Make sure Auto Product Cats is checked

If the option is already enabled but the panel still does not appear:

• Ensure WooCommerce is installed and active

Compatibility

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WordPress & WooCommerce Versions

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• WordPress 5.4 or higher
• WooCommerce 7.0 or higher
• PHP 8 or higher

Themes

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This plugin works with classic themes that support Appearance → Menus.
Block themes (Full Site Editing / Navigation block) are not supported.
If your site uses a block theme, switch to a classic theme to use this plugin.

Support

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Before contacting support please check sections Compatability, Troubleshooting, Faq’s first.

If you still need help, please contact support via your WooCommerce Marketplace account and include:

• A detailed explaination of the issue
• WordPress version
• WooCommerce version
• Theme name
• Screenshot of the issue (if applicable)

FAQs

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Help customers by answering commonly asked questions.